On this week's Niagara edition of The Golfi Real Estate Show, Rob Golfi and iHeart radio host Tim Dennis talk about whether the lockdown has changed the demand for beachfront properties, why property in a hot market doesn't sell, agents pushing homebuyers to bid higher possibly by their clients, and if you can you file a claim if you get injured during a showing?
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The Golfi Team RE/MAX serves Hamilton, Halton, Niagara, and surrounding regions (See List of Service Areas below). Check out the Golfi TV YouTube Channel Videos. You will find videos related to the Real Estate Industry including new home listings. You will find industry tips and fun community features as well. Call 905-575-7700 for all your Real Estate Needs!
Thank you for watching. Please like, comment, and subscribe! And remember, Golfi Gets It Sol
On this week's Niagara edition of The Golfi Real Estate Show, Rob Golfi and iHeart radio host Tim Dennis talk about whether the lockdown has changed the demand for beachfront properties, why property in a hot market doesn't sell, agents pushing homebuyers to bid higher possibly by their clients, and if you can you file a claim if you get injured during a showing?
DON’T FORGET TO FOLLOW US FOR DAILY UPDATES AND SUBSCRIBE TO OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL! :
Instagram: http://instagram.com/GolfiTeam
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RobGolfi
Twitter: http://twitter.com/RobGolfi
Website: http://robgolfi.com
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The Golfi Team RE/MAX serves Hamilton, Halton, Niagara, and surrounding regions (See List of Service Areas below). Check out the Golfi TV YouTube Channel Videos. You will find videos related to the Real Estate Industry including new home listings. You will find industry tips and fun community features as well. Call 905-575-7700 for all your Real Estate Needs!
Thank you for watching. Please like, comment, and subscribe! And remember, Golfi Gets It Sol
Hello, Niagara. This is Rob Golfi with the Golfi team. Welcome to the golf real estate show. Niagara edition with host Tim, Dennis, who would have thunk it a year ago. This weekend, we were talking about things, all being closed, and we were all dealing with a completely new world. And we were talking about real estate existing at a time when you couldn't do open houses and we really hadn't even addressed.
Virtual homes and those kinds of things. And that was just a year ago. And how things have changed, Rob? Here we are in may of 2021 and we're still dealing with issues, but we're also stealing. We're also dealing with prices for homes, which a year ago wouldn't have seemed even possible. Would they, if you'd have told me what the prices were for home, the average home in Niagara a year ago, you wouldn't believe it.
Would you. I would not have believed it. I thought we were going to go into a into a big global economic depression because of this pandemic. And I remember walking with my buddy and it was early in the morning. We walk from five 30 to six 33, four times a week. And he's in the car business and we're both going well, what's going to happen here.
And I I'm like, Whoa, I was scared. I'll tell ya. I, I I'm, I'm sure a lot of people were scared. A lot of people were scared for their jobs. A lot of people are scared for their businesses a lot. Like every, I, there was so much uncertainty that was happening and I I'll never, I'll never forget. And then, so, so w when that happened, that when that happened, I was like, what is going to, like, I didn't know what to expect.
So we shut down and I basically all my admin staff was working out of their house and I, and I. So, what I did was I said, okay, well, I'm going to pay them because I want to keep carrying them. I don't want to lose any of my staff. Right. So, and I'm thinking, how long can I carry these people?
Because we're not going to be doing the business that we're used to. So now my expenses are going to go up and my income is going to come down. And, and, and it did happen in, in the end of March and in April. And so basically I spent pretty well, six weeks in, in my office by myself. I'd show up to work every day.
All by myself and you know, roaming around the, my office and we've got a fairly big office, 10,000 square feet. And and it was quiet. It was eerie, eerie feeling. And then some of the agents didn't realize I was still at the office. And then slowly they started coming back in may. And and then we started bringing back the admin staff to work in the office.
Cause sometimes like we've got such intricate work that has to be done paperwork and, and it's a lot of legal stuff. So sometimes a little, few mistakes were being made from the girls working at home. So I said, listen guys I need you to come back to the office and if that's an issue, let me know. And we have, we still have one person at home from, from last year.
I don't know how, you know, I'm sure they're, they're on some kind of Serb pro plan or whatever the government's paying. But I mean her jobs here for her when she comes back, but. I just, yeah, I'll never forget it, but then things started changing may good, sir. Picking back up. We got used to that, you know, in six weeks we're kind of like, okay, well, let's come out of the, come out of our little hole and you know, like, you know what I mean?
Like, let's take a look around. It's like, okay, the dust settled, you know, we're all living in this thing. And then people started that had to move, start, you know, saying, Hey, listen, I gotta get my house on the market. I gotta get it sold. So we start getting at. And then it started ramping and ramping and ramping.
And then by the, by, by the summertime, like late summer things just started going crazy. And then it just, it just kept going and going and going and, and and I, it was just unbelievable. And I knew December inventory at all time, low January, same thing February was an all time. That was probably the.
Peak peak peak. If you sold your house in February, congratulations, you need a round of applause cause you actually lucked out and you cashed out. But but, and then now things are cooling off a little bit. I you know, I'm not saying that the house prices are coming down, but they're cooling.
They're settling a little bit. The rate, the rate at which they're going up is slowing down. Exactly. Like you're not getting, you're not getting 30 offers on a house now it's just not happening anymore. So as you're driving around right now, Robin and people are looking at homes, obviously the weather's better now than it was couple of months ago and people are driving around and we're into that period where it's not quite nice enough to start planting stuff, but I wanted to ask you.
As a, as a real estate professional, when people are driving by your home, how important is like the gardening and how you keep the lawn and that, because right now, obviously people are looking at putting in gardens and, and, and making plans. If you're planning on selling your home, how important is that in terms of curb appeal?
Curb appeal is everything because that's what people love to drive up to. They want to be happy going to their home. So if you're not, if you're, if you're not pleased driving up. It's it's going to hurt definitely on on people wanting to go inside because you know what you know, I know they say don't judge a book by its cover.
Well, people, people look at the curb appeal and now you can change it. People will spend money on landscaping if they can afford to, but if they can't, then you know what it is. Does landscaping make a deal though? I mean, when, when people drive by and they think, wow, what an incredible looking garden, is that a big deal in terms of homes?
Absolutely. But the return on investment for landscaping is not, it's not high it's high on, on people loving the place and sellability, but I mean, landscaping is probably the most expensive that you can spend on a house. And, and I know that cause I, I spent a fortune on landscaping on my house and people, you know, and people, when they walk by say, you've done a beautiful job, you've done a great job and I'll tell ya.
I spent a fortune on landscaping on my property six years ago. And finally, I probably I'm ahead of the game. Now. I finally like, you know what I mean? It took four or five years for me to catch up. So if I sold my house, Within less than five years, I would have lost money on my house. And so now I can feel comfortable in saying, Hey, all the money that I've put into my house for renovating my house inside and outside and doing all the landscaping, hardscaping, putting a pavilion pool and everything else, I will get my return back and plus some, but it took, it took six years and it took, and it took a, a market like this for it to happen.
If this market didn't happen, I probably would still be probably floating, maybe breaking even point. And so like, but when people do landscaping, they're doing it for themselves. They're not doing it to sell. If you're doing it to sell people, you know, we'll do the basic landscaping just to make it look good, but you're not going to just start doing like, Like stonework.
Well, yeah, it's funny. I wouldn't have even believed all of that. Had we not looked at we've we thought, Hey, maybe we'll put in a rock garden out front. I couldn't believe what it costs just to put in some, some big rocks for heaven sake. I, by the time I looked at the price of that, I said, Nope, the tulips are going back in.
Sorry. That's all there is to it. Yeah. Oh yeah, absolutely. Like, like I spent, I'll tell you something our office on Lundy's lane or an Agra falls office on Lundy's lane that we're doing work on. They started last year, but we've been, we, we were slowed down for a bunch of reasons when co COVID weather and all different things.
So the, the, my heart scape is all done. Now they're just working on the outside of the, of the, of the office space. Once that's done, they're going to put all the, a nice plants and trees and everything else, so that cause so they don't get trampled on while they're working on the house, but I spent a lot of money on that property.
And so my return on it, I figure for what I spent on it. I'll probably I'm at I'll probably be a little bit behind the breakeven point, but I'll be probably, but I did, I did increase the value of this property quite a bit. But whatever. I increased it by, I increased it by whatever money I put in. It's not like I'm making money.
So if I had to sell this place today, I would probably not make money, but I would get my probably 90% of my investment back that I put in. So I'm still behind the eight ball a little bit, but I will be ahead of the eight ball probably in two to five years. And and, and, and I've got a beautiful I'll have a beautiful office space and I can't wait to show it off once it's all done.
One of the big issues in the Niagara region. The last few weeks at city councils in St. Catherine's and 40 eerie and port Colburn, they've been talking about beaches and parking around beaches and access to beaches, et cetera, et cetera. So when you're driving around and you're looking at homes if you're within walking distance of a beach, whether you're at Lake Erie or Lake Ontario, or what have you, does that drive the price of the home up?
Or do you have to have actual beach view? For the price to take a big hike. You don't want, if you've got beach view, people love it. And if you live on and if you back onto like a waterfront property that has a beach, that's even more incredible on Arthur street in in St. Catherine's. I have a property we just listed, it's going to hit the market next week and they have.
Beach front. I'm telling you Tim, you got to see this place gorgeous. I like it's, it's one of the very few properties that you can have and literally have your jet ski and just drive right into the sand. Like this has got Sandy beaches. It's incredible. And we're, we're listening to this property and it's hit in the market next week and I can't wait, but that those properties there, especially if it's got a Sandy beach demand demand is the greatest that it can happen because you could just walk out your backyard and just walk out to the, to the Lake and, and, and enjoy it.
You know, it's, yeah. It's hard to get that. Usually waterfront properties in along the golden horseshoe, you know, they either have a cliff or they got rocks. They've got this, but this has. Beach and beach does definitely add a lot of value, whether you back onto the, onto the Lake or you actually have a view of the beach.
And there's definitely that's definitely adding value to any real estate. So that would be classified as a luxury home. So how is the luxury home market in the Niagara region right now? It's kicking butt. It's just kicking Niagara in a Lake is, is like, that's an official term by the way, for real estate kicking, but it's actually in the book.
Yeah. Yeah. That's a good term is a good term. If you're S if you own own if you own real estate Niagara and a Lake. So Niagara, and the Lake right now is, is doing really well. A lot of people are are, are selling their their, their homes and cashing out big time. There's one here on queen street, right across the street from the golf course there.
And they just sold for 4.7. I think it was $4.7 million. And you know what, and these people bought, I think this place for 3 million. Five years ago, or less than five years ago, I actually did a printout of it. And so they, they actually do, I think this was a little bit of an Inn. They were, you know, they people were like doing I think it was a bed and breakfast or something like that.
It it, they, they did very, very well on, on on this property and it's but look at that $1.7 million I think it was in a course of No 2018 and it wasn't a bond. So they did 1.7 million in, in three years. Now they've put some money into it. It's gorgeous place. I, you know, and, and you're right on the main road with a golf course across the street from you, you can't go wrong with that.
So they, they did very well, but there's a lot of other properties in nag on a Lake that sold in a $4 million Mark. So I've got a whole luxury home kind of business built into the golf real estate team. Right. Absolutely. Yeah, because luxury became such a big thing. We have our Golfi it's called Golfi luxury.com.
You go to it, you'll see all the luxury in the Niagara peninsula that's available right now. Not only just our listings, but all the listings that in in, in Niagara now certain areas have different criteria's benchmarks for a luxury. So. Like a Niagara Lake. It might be over $1.6 million St.
Catherine's. It might be one way. It could be 1.2. There's different, different levels of that that's been Set for for, from what the bar is, right? Yeah. The bar is for each area. Yep. If you go onto our luxury on our Golfi luxury site, just type inGolfi luxury.com or Golfi luxury, you'll see it.
And it's actually so easy to navigate through and you can go different areas and just hit a Niagara and it'll tell you the different areas that you want to check out. And it'll give you all the luxury homes that are available in now in Niagara, which is fantastic. You can listen to this show online any time and any, any space that you've got, whatever your podcasting platform happens to be.
You can find us on Spotify and iTunes and Google podcast. Just look for the Golfi real estate show this weekend, all our previous shows as well. Plus of course you can go online and get all the details on all of this@robGolfi.com. And he'll you know, right in there, there's a space where you can ask some questions and we're going to get to a few of the questions that have come in.
On Rob's website coming up in a moment. Well, we've been talking about, what's been happening in the last little while and the homes that are selling and the prices they're getting. When we come back, why would a property in this market not sell? You might be surprised at the answer to that. That's when we come back on the golf, the real estate show.
Looking for homes, trying to sell a home, the Golfi real estate show on information, treasure trove of stuff every week with Rob Golfi I'm Tim Dennis, we were just talking about the issues as surrounding some of the big home sales, some of the luxury home sales, some of the smaller home sales in a hot market like this.
But there are reasons why some homes might not sell in this market. And that may seem like an odd thing, but what are the reasons that a property would not sell right now, Rob? Keith Key factor would be price for sure. If your house is not selling in this market, you're definitely over well over priced.
Especially if you give if you give yourself maybe two 14 days to 21 days and you're still having sold you you're you're you're way over priced for the market. And. And if you're overpriced in this market, you're way over priced then because everything is selling in, in, in the market that we're in right now.
So you gotta be very careful and it could be, it could be condition of the house, you know price condition. Maybe it wasn't staged at all. And so those are a lot of factors that you have to look at and, and you know what the key thing is when we're sitting down. We like, we, we had a home that we priced it and we thought we priced it pretty good.
We thought it was priced to sell. And, and it's sad. I mean, we're getting showings on it, but nobody was willing to put an offer in on it. Cause it did need some work. And it was a large home and it probably needed somebody had to go in there and probably put a maybe you know, 150 to $200,000 into it.
Now, not saying it was garbage, it was a massive, it was a big house. Was a large house, a lot of square footage. That means the larger, the square footage, the more money it's going to take to, to renovate it, especially if you've got over 4,500 square feet, you know, just imagine how many square feet of flooring that you have to put in through through this house.
So you really gotta be very careful. So what you have to do is you've got to gauge and monitor every feedback that comes in from the agents. You know, you know, and you have to read between the lines because a lot of agents they'll just say, well, did it, it wasn't right for the square footage. It needed too much work.
And we understand that, but you've got to really read it. And then you got to react fast. You can't spend too much time keeping it at that price because if you do that, You will hurt yourself and you'll be chasing the market. So you gotta be re re very reactive and proactive when you put a house up on the market.
And if it's not selling and it's, if you're not sold in two weeks, you've got to redo something with that listing. There's an it, and it happens. And it, and there are listings out there that are sometimes sitting sometimes that long. So it is a challenging market. It's it's something that you've never seen.
Other people have never seen, obviously. And everybody's talking about how, if you are, you got a home up for sale and this is the time to do it. You're going to make out just incredibly well, but there are some strange and some bad things happening in the real estate market. Because as I was reading this week, there have been some complaints that have been.
Turning up, what's going on there? Why what's, why are home buyer complaints going up in some respects, Rob? Well what's happening is, and this situation, this was an article in the I think the CBC news was it, or, and they called me for a comment on it. So what happened was a couple was looking at putting an offer in, on a house.
And there was, I think, 23 offers on it. So they go to this one couple and said, Hey, if you can come up another $80,000. This could be your house. And they said, because your deposit strong and $80,000 more, and they're going, what? Like, like, you mean there's somebody else that was that high. So they said, no, we're not, we're not gonna, you know, go up 80,000.
And basically there was basically saying, you know, cause somebody else's offer was that 80, like $80,000 more. So for them to get it, they would have to come up $80,000 more. So. They said, no, we're going to, we're not sticking with our offer with our offer. We're not gonna, you know, go another 80,000, which they already went a lot higher than they want, wanted to go.
So then they find out after this house sells for $80,000 less than what they came in at. No, no, not what they came in at a lot lower than they did it set it what they wanted to become at. So they're going, wait a minute. So this agent, this selling agent was trying to push them to go up a significant amount of time, money, more, which they didn't have to.
And, and and, and, and, and they're upset about that because they're saying, well, how can they do this? Well, what happened was here. The agent, you know, it was trying to push the buyers up in price and they figured, okay, this buyer's coming from Toronto. They figured they can afford to go up higher, which is, which is wrong.
And a lot of this has to do with sometimes a lot of times the pressure from the sellers pushing the agents, what they want. And sometimes the agents are pushed, are doing it themselves. Now what happens is everybody's supposed to put a blind bid in. Basically everybody puts their best offer in which whatever the best offer is they go with and they work with that one.
Well, this one wasn't the best offer or was probably the best offer, but they went with a lower offer or something like that. Anyway, what happened here is the agent was trying to push them to come up on a higher number, which they didn't have to. And so they were really disappointed in how that turned out and I get it.
Like if you got two offers that are almost the same, almost the same, you go to both guys and say, Hey, listen, both your offers are like within $100 of each other, go back, come back and see if you can come, go back and see if you can better your offer. And then you basically do a second round of competition with the two top guys.
That's what happens a lot of the times. And then they come back whenever wins, wins. So you, you know what I'm saying? Like, so, so they didn't do that this way. And, and, and I don't like pushing too much. You gotta be very careful because it's, it's getting ugly out there and it is getting ugly. And there were asking, is there a lot of stuff like that going on?
And I'm sure there is. I'm, I'm sure there is. We don't like to push. We had a clients push us to push the buyers up higher and higher, and the buyer's agent was going Rob. Our clients are getting kind of nervous and I didn't like it with our S our sellers. That one time we representative I was very disgusted and I wasn't happy.
And how that was happening. You know, everybody submits their best offer. Boom. You pick the best one that you deal with and you go with it. And, and that's how, that's, how that's, how it should be. But but you know, I tell me this, if, if you're, if you're the agent and you've got a bunch of people coming in with offers and you know, I come to you and say, I'd like to put in an offer on this house.
Can you tell me what those other offers are? Can you tell me that somebody is already come in. 100,000 over or 10,000 over. What can you tell me as the agent, if I'm asking about putting an offer in what do I have the right to know about any other offer you don't you and you don't have the right to know.
You just have to come in with your best number. And the, and that that's the ethical way of doing it. And that's what we were talking. And that's against the rules. You could, can they get the agent be reprimanded for that? Yeah, absolutely. He can. He can be, if he's, if he's caught, he can be in a lot of trouble.
And a lot of times there's always a lot of lawsuits that happen when the agent represents the buyer and the seller, because there's always something scrupulous going on there. So, and, and, and in BC you cannot represent both the buyer and seller. So one agent cannot represent both parties and, and that's how it is in Ontario with lawyers, they can't represent the buyer and seller.
So they stopped that. I, I can't remember what 10, 15 years ago, but that will be coming down. I'd say, within the next five years that an agent will not be able to represent. The seller and the buyer at the same time. So if you are, if you list a property, let's say you will not be able to represent a buyer.
If he's got a, if somebody calls you to say, Hey Rob, I've got, I want to put an offer on this property. I want to go through you. That probably won't happen. It'll have to go through another agent in your office to submit that offer with with the buyer. Here's a question that came in. On your website.
Dear Rob, we're thinking of selling our home and my husband's smokes nonstop. We interviewed an agent and he said, smoking is a problem that could hurt us for a quick sale and S and the price of the home as well. How big a deal is that? It is a big deal and, and it depends on who's buying it because it could be a big job to clean it.
Now, like the easy part is if it's, if it's got carpeting, if it's got drapery and everything, that's easy, you can remove that and you get rid of a lot of the smell. But the nicotine now it depends how many years they've been. They're smoking now, the nicotine that's in the floors, the walls, even in, in the duct work.
Now there's a lot of nicotine going in a duct work and duct work has to be cleaned and, and sprayed. And like it's, it's amazing. Like there's two ways you can get rid of it. One is, is you put a sealant on top of the nicotine walls, but it that could see through eventually, but there's, there is cleaners that.
Clean it, and it drips up all the nicotine, but it does hurt the sale to a certain degree. And it does hurt the the price on the property. A lot of couples when they walking through, they're like, you know, this is a lot of work. Like, I don't know if I want to do this, you know, and some couples don't know how much work it is and they do buy it.
And they, and they're in for a lot more than they anticipated. The key thing here is if you're smoking, a lot of people smoke in the garage is still that still seeps into the house a little bit, but try to smoke outside. But, but I'm telling you if you're a smoker, just smoke outsiders, smoke in the garage and stay away from inside the house, you will benefit from the sale, the resell of your home, down the road.
So just and I know a lot of people are doing that now. I, I, I know a lot, like I sell a lot of homes. And a lot of people are smoking outside now more than ever before, because we've been conditioned to do that ever since they stopped, stopped, people can stop. Couldn't smoking in restaurants or, or in buildings anymore.
So a lot of people are smoking outside. Westlake that ad always says, you who live in the house can go nose blind. You don't even know the smell that's going on in your house right now. So I guess if you're a smoker and you've been smoking in the house, you got to keep that in mind when you're setting the price, because it may, it may be that somebody comes in and says, I'm going to have to spend a lot of money cleaning this.
So we're going to offer you less, right. Absolutely. Or they could be allergic to the, to the smoke and to that scent. Cause there's a, there's a lot of people that have sent allergies that they can't handle that strong, that strong scent in a house. So they, so it'll, it'll avoid them from even walking in.
They'll walk in the front door and walk right out, step one foot in and step and step back and say this, they can't buy this house. Is it? We've talked in the past about. Pricing being really important that you've got to just come up with that perfect number. That's not too high, that's not too low. And people use the term list price for a house.
Does that mean anything anymore in this market? That what the list price is because you hear people say, well, I'm not paying more than 10% of the more than the list price. Does that mean. Anything anymore? No. Yeah, like it's, it's, you know, looking at list price is no list price. You can't look at that anymore.
Especially if they're holding offers, like that's just a benchmark point where they're starting at and it's not, and they're not. And their, their anticipation is to get a lot more than that. It was like the reserve bid in an auction, right. When you can, when somebody says this is up for auction, we're going to start at such and such, but that's not what we're expecting to get.
Exactly. Exactly. But, but there has been, I'll tell you something, there, there have been houses that been up for went up for sale. They were holding offers and they got zero offers. They got zero cause nobody wanted to compete and that's how that's starting to happen slowly a little bit right now. So but again you're right.
Yeah. There's the list price, the list price. Don't look at the list price. If they're holding offers, you've got to just get that out of your mind because they're not getting anything in this market. If they're getting zero offers, is that simply because their price is too high? It, it, they probably priced it too high to hold offers.
So for instance, for instance, if let's say the house is worth 700,000, it, the market value is 700, right? So the best way to list that house and hold offers you listed at 650,000. Okay. You list it at, you know, 25 to 50,000 below market value. Okay. That when you put that and you hold offers, you chances are you're going to get seven 50 for that or more.
So you're you're going to end up getting 50,000 to a hundred thousand dollars more than what, what the market value is. So, so again, remember this 700 is the market value. You list that six 50 you hold offers. Then you're going to start getting offers 50,000 over asking a hundred thousand over asking sometimes 150,000 over asking.
So that could take you up to up to 800,000, even eight eight 50. So that's how you're, that's how people are getting high numbers for their houses. You gotta, you gotta, you gotta list it 50,000 below market value and you'll probably end up getting a hundred thousand or more above market above market value.
Yeah, I've got, actually, I've got a question about market value and appraisers and stuff, but we'll save that for a moment. Cause we have to take a quick break here on the Golfi real estate show. If people have questions, Rob you know, you've heard us mentioned a couple of questions that came in this week and we'll have a couple more in the next segment, but how do they get those questions to you?
What's the best way. Yeah, just go to you can go to Rob Golfi.com and email us, or you can go to questions@Golfiteam.com questions@Golfiteam.com and submit any questions that you may have for us. And we will try to answer them as best as possible as Rob Golfi. I'm Tim Dennis, this is the Golfi real estate show back in a sec.
It's the Golfi real estate show. I'm Tim, Dennis, but the Golfi and Golfi real estate is Rob Golfi. Who's with us this morning. I've meant to ask you this long time that your name is out there. Your picture is out there. It's in the mailboxes. It's on the billboards. Do you get, do you ever get people coming up to you at the grocery store going?
You're the, you're the real estate guy here. You're Rob Golfi. I know you. Yeah. When people see me, they do a double take. And sometimes I don't know if I met these people before or they're just. So looking at me and, and they look better in person than on the billboard. I said, thank you so much. I appreciate it.
So that means a lot to me. So, but the but yeah, I do, I do get people they'll do a double-take on me and they'll They'll say and it's, and it's funny sometimes, you know, it just, people are, are happy and there's, Hey, you're Rob, Golfi the real estate agent. And I, and, and they'll always sometimes ask advice what's going on and what's going to happen and stuff like that.
And I'll sit down. I mean, I'll, I'll chat with them for a few minutes and, you know, give him some updates and stuff like that. But yeah. Oh, no, everybody's pretty good. Everybody's pretty, pretty good. I'll bet you get a few of those, you know, people across the room going, I know him from somewhere where I know that face from his he's on TV.
No. Where, where is he? Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. One time. I one time I had somebody, I know you were, where do I know you from? And I kind of diverted his mind and this is how the mind works. He goes, he goes. Those to me, what do you do for a living? I says, Oh, I'm in, I'm in car sales. I just wanted, so his brain was wracking.
So like, he was just going crazy, trying to figure out how he knew me. And then he, and then he came back to me because we were in the room and he comes up to me. He goes, Oh, good one. He goes, you're, you're Rob. You're the real estate agent. And he just, you see all the mind, I took his mind on a different path.
Yep. I went okay. Let's, let's get to some more questions that have come in to the website and, and et cetera, et cetera. This one says, dear Rob touring a home and you're headed to the basement going down the steps you lean against the ballester and it breaks you've sprained or broken an ankle. Can I file a claim against this?
Yes, you can. So the seller, when they sign a contract, They sign a contract indicating that they do have a liability insurance and they're supposed to, and they sign that that's a contract. And, but what happens is we also carry. An additional insurance policy. Now, not every agent does this, but the Golfi team we do, we pay, I think it's costing me $3,000 a year and we pay a business liability insurance and additional rider that we have just in case things happen.
And because we sell a lot of homes you know lawyers will like to come after us. So for instance, let's say we bring somebody through the house. Somebody or somebody else, somebody, an agent shows a house, somebody leans against the railing, going to the basement. They, it breaks. They fall, they break, they break their leg or, you know, break their ankle.
So automatically the homeowner's supposed to have insurance, but liability insurance. And they go after the homeowner. But a lot of times. A lot of times they go after the agent that has the house listed. That's just the way the legal system is. So we carry an additional liability insurance. Now, not every agent has this.
We do a lot of agents. Don't have this extra liability insurance. Now that helps, that helps with the insurance company that has, that has their insurance. So they work together trying to, you know, deal with this situation. Now, a lot of times now, if the homeowner. Doesn't have liability insurance, let's say, and there's people out there have not I surprisingly, Tim, I can't believe this, but a lot of people don't have house insurance out there.
There's people out there they figured their house is paid for. I don't need to have house insurance because they're their mortgage companies saying you don't need it and they don't have it. Now, if something happened to somebody while I had the house listed, And somebody falls, they're going to go after the homeowner, but because he doesn't have insurance, they're going to come after the the agent now every so at least I'm covered that way in, in, in that event.
And that's my insurance policy that covers me now, every agent is covered through errors and emissions insurance, but it's only to a certain amount, like I think it's twenty-five thousand dollars. So, but that's not enough to, to help you deal with any. Lawsuits or anything like that, that may happen while people are coming through the house.
So, but you gotta be very careful, but the other thing is, well, the other thing is what's I can't believe is that people don't have insurance on their house. They're taking a huge risk. I remember one lady, she called me up one time and her house you know, three quarters of it was pretty well burnt down.
And she called, she goes, I got to sell my house and I go, okay. And I take a look at it. I go, it's torn. Like it's burnt. And she goes, well I didn't have any insurance, so I don't have any money to fix it. So basically she has to sell a house that is, you know, like somebody has to tear down and rebuild.
Now. She just lost her investment. Now what, like that's a bad risk. Like it's like you take chances and, and I can't believe how many people don't have insurance out there and you're taking a huge risk. If your house burns down, well, you wouldn't get a mortgage. If your home wasn't insured, you wouldn't get a mortgage.
And the reason why, and the people that have their houses paid for are the ones that, that probably don't have don't have insurance. And, but there's other liabilities. Somebody can trip and fall on your porch. There's all those things. You don't want to take the risk on your property because then if you have to fight a legal battle, you got to pay out of your own pocket.
So people, if you don't, if you don't if your house is paid for and you don't have insurance, you're taking a huge risk. I know insurance companies, they're, they're getting expensive today and you know, for a house it's constant two, $3,000 a year, but you're keeping your investment. It's worth it.
Your house is your house is going to appreciate way more than what you're going to pay for insurance, have insurance on your house. We don't know when they're signing the contract to put their house up for sale, that they have insurance or not. I mean, on there it says that they do it's, it's indicating that, Hey, you're responsible if there's any, any issues in your house.
And it's my responsibility also. As a, as a an agent that's listing a house, sometimes you go down the stairs, there's no railing going down the stairs. I always, I always inform my clients, you know what? You should get a railing here because we're going to have a lot of people coming through your house.
And if somebody slips and falls, we can have an issue here. So so I always indicate that now it's up to the homeowner, whether they want to go through that. And a lot of times. When people are going through, we tell them to be very careful going downstairs. There is no railing. So there's like, you always have to cover your cover, your tracks on everything.
Always cover your tracks. But people have insurance. Believe me. It's I know I hate paying for it. And but it's, it's worth having Nick writes in, I'm buying a home. And we're selling a home. We were supposed to close on our new home last week. The buyer of my house is now waiting for his bank to approve his mortgage.
Is there anything we can do legally? No, sometimes there's always a delay in closing and it's a chain reaction and really there's nothing you can do it, but what happens is it totally makes the moving process frustrating and very, very it's just agonizing and stressful just because of the fact you've booked your moving day.
You've got everybody all lined up and now you can't move into the house that you purchased because the guy that's buying your house. Can't close. And as a total chain reaction, now you can go after them. And, and Sue, but, but I mean, there, hopefully they do close. Hopefully it does close, but if they can't close, then you can Sue them and say, Hey, listen.
This is, this is what caused me. Sometimes people can't get their mortgage banks won't release the money cause they don't want you to own two houses. Now you buy the new one and you've got to sell yours. So it just, it, it, I I've seen it cause problems most. And that's why you gotta get your pre-approval done.
That's why you gotta get your mortgage stuff done. This happens a lot in private deals. Because there was no agent there to help them saying, Hey, we got to make sure your financing's in order. There's always like your, the, the, the mortgage the real estate agent is there to make guide you through the way to make sure everything is going to close and run smoothly, right.
To the closing date, but private deals. Oh, nightmares on closing date nightmares. So, because there's nobody there you know, Helping them or guiding them to make sure all the, all the paperwork's in order. And it got their approvals. A lot of people when they buy private. There's no agent, they're saying, Hey, did you get your, pre-approval done?
They'll they'll start going for their mortgage two weeks before closing. And then the mortgage company goes, Hey, sorry. You don't qualify. You got too much debt. We can't give you the mortgage. Now that, that seller of that house, that you know, that buyer was going to buy it. Now he's, he's in a jam on that day.
So there's a lot of, there could be a lot of issues. So, you know, that's why you got to make sure that whoever's buying your house, especially if it's private, you better make sure you. You get the paperwork from that person right from their bank at a letter letter from their bank saying they do qualify to buy it, but you know, otherwise you're going to be left stranded and on closing date.
Yeah. It's it always amazes me. What. When you talk about these stories, it's like a chess game, right? They, if you're buying and selling at the same time, you got to set the dates up so that everything matches so that you have the money to buy the new home, et cetera, et cetera. And that's where that's where a real estate agent really comes in.
Helpful AIDS. It's not something you want to try and do yourself, especially if you've never done it before. No, absolutely. With a realtor, with a realtor out there helping you they will get you the, the, they know the whole process. They'll make sure the bank, the all the banking has done. Right.
And they'll talk to the bank and say, Hey, listen to this guy qualify. Here's here's what they're buying. Here's the details. Here's it's like, it's, we're holding your hand all the way through when you're on your own. You know, you may not know what you need and all of a sudden, you know, last minute, you're not going to be able to get a note.
What do you call it? An NOA notice of assessment from the revenue Canada in, in one week. You're not going to get that. That's why, when you're dealing with a realtor, you go to the bank and they'll say, this is what you need. And you've got your closing dates in two months. And, and, but usually you have that stuff in order before you even look for a house.
So always make sure you have all your paperwork in order especially your finances, your credit cards, you have everything up to date, your, your income tax up to date. And then you're good. The go easy question for me to ask. Not necessarily an easy question for you to answer, because there are a lot, as well as, you know, a lot of sellers who are listening to this program because they're getting advice on how to sell the most money, et cetera, et cetera.
But what about the buyer? How does a buyer get a deal in what really is a seller's market right now? Rob? Golfi. You don't want, there's a lot of good deals out there. Now, the best way to get a house is find a house that's been on the market for more than 14 days, sometimes even 20 days on the market and you will get a deal.
So for instance, let's say a house is worth 700,000. It's listed at 725, 750,000. You be surprised those people that homeowner says, Hey, I want to try the market. See what's going on. See what's going on. The majority of the market is going to walk away, not look at that house or, or look at it and say, it's too much.
Nobody is willing to throw in a lower, a lower offer on a house because the way the market's going, but you go to that house. Now, this house is worth 700. They got it listed at seven 50. You go in at $680,000. And, or even six 75 and settle somewhere around six 85, you will get that house that homeowner just wants an offer on the house.
They wanted to try the market at a higher price, but they know they'll take something less. You'd be shocked at how many deals are out there. So look for the houses that aren't selling, because those are the overpriced houses put in a lower offer and you're going to get it. W I, I said this to my niece.
She was going crazy. She was buying a house in in Toronto. They were losing out on bids and bits and bits. I says, forget about those houses. Look for the house has been on the market for 14 days or more. I says, go after those wines, I go and you go low, go put a low ball, offer on them and you're going to get it.
And you know what? Within a week they did that and they got a house and they got their house in Toronto. They were so thrilled. She called me and she said, Rob, got it. She goes, I told you say, there you go. It's it's, it's how you know, it's how to play the game out there when you're. Buying a house as a buyer, look for the houses that have been on the market for 14 days.
I know it's tough in Maine. You know what I mean? But just look for them. You will find deals like you would not believe stamped the benchmark. And when you say that look for a house that's been on the market a long time is 14 days a long time. 14 days is 14 to 20 days is a long time that that's the time where you can go in and you can be the Viper and just snap in there and just, just come on opera and work at it.
Absolutely because those people, they, they know they're overpriced. They're just seeing if anybody's willing to give it to them, but nobody is. But when you come in a lot lower, they're going to work with your offer. And believe me, I've done this many times and it works. And that's the opportunity where you can get a really good price on a house in a, in a sellers market.
So there you go advice for those of you who are looking and those of you who are selling. And if you want other advice all the all the programs in this series are available anywhere. You find your podcasts, whether it's on iTunes or Spotify or Google, what have you just look up the Golfi real estate show?
And this show is on there. Plus all of the previous shows in the series and we of course expect to hear from you. You can always let us know what you like and what you don't like. And you can go to Rob Golfi.com and find out more. That's Rob G O L F i.com. That's it for this week's Golfi real estate show.
Mr.Golfi we'll chat again. Next time around you. Got it. Take care.