Learning From Past Mistakes Working In Real Estate

Nobody is perfect. And you’re going to make mistakes anytime you do something new. On this podcast, Angie looks back to the beginning of her career to reflect on what she’s learned and how she’s grown along the way. Then she’ll answer two of your questions from the mailbag.

 

0:38 Did You See This? Scams…

• Police and an agent caught a fake buyer who used fake income verification documents, which is loan fraud.
• Unfortunately, Angie also experienced a scam with a seller who was “traveling out of the country” and had a few red flags. It turns out the lot was illegally deeded over with a fake attorney. They caught it just in time and the police took over the matter. 
• Another common scam is homes for sale being reposted online by someone else as if they were for rent.

 9:22 Keep personal opinions out of the conversation

• Angie has learned to hold her tongue on things that are subjective. She tries not to influence clients by commenting (from a place of her personal tastes) about décor, size, etc…
• Pointing out thinks like a busy road or resale value are important to share, but commenting on colors and layouts is kept to a minimum because it’s about the buyer’s preferences, not the agent’s.

 11:49 Communicating with clients

• A long time ago, Angie did not clearly understand the contingent sale addendum.
• She miscommunicated that to the client. She sold the home for free to make up for the error and learned the importance of being precise with details and communicating effectively with clients.
• Thankfully, the client continued to use Angie and her team for future home purchases.

 14:03 The only constant is change 

• Angie started with new home sales which is completely different from her line of work now.
• The North Carolina Real Estate Commission sends out new contract rules every year. You have to make sure you’re on top of things like that for the benefit of your client.

 15:37 Saying “no”

• Angie is a “yes” person and a people pleaser, but over time she learned to say “no” when working with clients. It’s an important part of giving clients honest feedback.

 19:04 Mailbag: Mortgage insurance

• Corban says a friend told him to avoid paying mortgage insurance on a loan. What can he do to avoid that?
• Putting down 20 percent or more of the home price allows you to avoid paying mortgage insurance.
• Mortgage insurance is the lender’s protection in case you default on the home.
• If you don’t pay 20 percent initially, you’re not locked into the insurance forever. You can eliminate it in most cases once you build up over 20% in equity later on.

 20:37 Moving in six months

• Susan from Cary says her husband is relocating for work in about half a year. When is the best time to start the process of selling a home?
• Angie says that it’s never too soon to start that conversation.
• The professional stager can be sent out earlier and you have more time to get your to-do list taken care of.

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Angie Cole - Contact - Call: 919-538-6477

Show Transcription:

Note: This is an automated transcription. Please forgive the robots as they tend to make some mistakes...

Speaker 1: It's time for the savvy real tour podcast I'm Walter Salt alongside Angie Cole, the owner and broker in charge of a coal realty, serving you throughout the triangle, teaching you about the ins and outs When it comes to buying or selling a home, you confined the team online by going to a coal realty dot com. That's a c o L e realty dot com or by calling 919578312528 That's 0 919578312528 919578331 to 8. And now it's time for one of the top real tours in the Triangle. Angie Cole and the savvy real tour podcast It's time for Did you see this here on the savvy real tour? Looking at some of the interesting and fun news that we find throughout the real estate world, Sometimes it's, ah, on the bizarre side. Sometimes it's on the more interesting side. This is on the kind of dumb criminal side. Angie, you know, lots of radio shows have that that dumb criminal segment, so why not have us jump into it on our program here today, cops and an agent catch a fake buyer this news came to us from the Louisiana area where a woman was arrested. She used fake income verification documents and was trying to buy a multi $1,000,000 home. And a local realtor spotted some of the red flags and alerted authorities. So kudos to the real tour and the woman was arrested and sounds like they avoided getting scammed in that situation. Got me curious. Have you ever had to deal with a scammer before?

Speaker 2: I have, unfortunately, and, you know, first of all, that one woman. I mean, that's that's loan fraud is what that isthe. So I don't know that necessarily. The Realtor would have been scanned, but it's more of the the banks right here. You have to give true documentation over for them to verify. So But, yes, I went tio R actually had a piece of land a lot in a beautiful neighborhood in Wake Force that was listed and on the market and all of this sudden, so we actually we get a buyer for this home, and it's someone that one of my buyers special choses representing that buyer, super excited about building their dream home, and whenever it's time to get the due diligence money handed over to the cellar that I'm representing. Something started to seem funny, you know, he was talking about Oh, he's getting his bank's changed around. And it just It was very sketchy on DH. Let me remind you that this cellar was not local. Was stated he was travelling out of the country. But the funny part wass You know, I did my due diligence, and I checked on the deed like I'm supposed to. And this was legitimately the cellar, right? So it wasn't like I didn't double check. This person was truly, indeed the cellar. Well, I started get a little bit suspicious just how things started to pan out. And pretty much I could tell that this guy was just looking for us to send him money, right? And very ah, lot of questions about money up front. So anyway, I did a little bit investigations, and I think this night we need to be my 2nd 2nd job. But I

Speaker 1: am sleuthing.

Speaker 2: I s So I went into MLS and I looked at where this lot was sold in the past. I contacted that agent who represented the buyer who would have been the last seller. Right? I know this all seems confusing, but contacted that agent and a C h. And I said, Hey, just let you know I had this home and a lot. This is my client. I said, you know, do you know? You know, I see that it was never listen in MLS, but looks like there was a transfer of hands from your client to my client. You know? Do you know what happened there? And she was like, Wow, I'm surprised that they didn't wouldn't come to me tow lister property. Right? And this was supposed to be there forever. Home, like, eventually they were going to build on this lot. And then it's right is the red flag because my listing manager had mentioned me that when she was out there putting a rider on the sign that the next door neighbor said, Wow, they're selling like everyone was shocked. Right? So that agent that I reached out to this very long with his story, but the agent that I reached out to she ended up passing along the true confront the true owners. Contact info for me to reach out. Reached out to them, and they were in shock. So come to find out, this piece of land was illegally deeded over to this new person that I was representing. Hey, was all fraud in a scam. And I mean, FBI investigation got into it and come to find out. I mean, there was a fake attorney. I mean, it was all fake. Now, it truly did get recorded with the courthouse somehow, but it was all completely fraud. And come to find out this gentleman did this in more than one county on DH. So I don't know the outcome of it, because it was best for me to kind of step back, and you know, that that was on a whole nother level. But talk about scam, right? And the buyers for this, you know, the new buyers. Of course. We're just I mean, just to straw and bummed because they were so excited about building their dream home. But thank goodness we never went to closing because I don't know that the true sellers would ever be able Teo, retrieve their property back if it passed through that many hands. So crazy crazy story, right?

Speaker 1: Could you could you imagine being the the actual owners, but you haven't built your property yet. And then, like

Speaker 2: a

Speaker 1: couple of months later, you show up and there's already a house. But

Speaker 2: there's a new home on your life, you know. And that's exactly what happened because they live at a state. They had no idea and no way of knowing, right? So

Speaker 1: I got a lot of that would have been Wow

Speaker 2: ho, Mike! And the sad part is, I don't know that there would've been anything that could have done at that point, right? I mean, they could have legally gone off after this so called cell, or somehow, But, you know, there's no way to get back your land. I don't think at that point when it's now been sold off to a new person,

Speaker 1: that's a B right there. That's a lie.

Speaker 2: I mean, it really was, and it's, you know, when I get back through it, But I mean, they even said there was like, you know, the investigators and everything. I mean, of course, I had the cops call on me and they were, they said, I mean, there was nothing you could've done differently. you know, But it's It's crazy. It's crazy world we live in.

Speaker 1: Well, that is really interesting. You had a little bit of impersonation going on. We had some fun. We have awesome. Yeah. Show all sorts of stuff in there. So it was

Speaker 2: a

Speaker 1: really interesting story. Well, that's pretty cool. I mean, not cool that it happened, but cool that you guys discovered it, Of course, So sure, sure. Go. Well, don't try and scam anybody, okay? Just stop doing that. Dan, who edits our show? Angie, who creates the podcast version of the program, puts it online. You know that the back end wizard of the program hey, was selling something on eBay just this past week and found a buyer really quickly and was all excited. And then they asked for him to include a $200 gift card when he ships the device. And then he'll add an extra $200 to the to the sale price when he submits payment. And Dan Dan said the best line. He said, I don't mind you trying to scam me, but now you're just insulting my intelligence,

Speaker 2: right? Like I'm not that stupid. Come on, we We see a lot in the real estate market, so, you know, be way our tenant. Beware. Where scammers will take active listings has happened to us several times, will take active listings. They then post them on maybe Craigslist or Zillow as being for rent. And they'll tell these people would just go out to the property, Take a look around, you know, pretty much. I mean, you would think someone to be smarter than this, but I clearly I think a lot of people have fallen for it, you know? But once in a blue moon, people like, why is there for sale sign in the yard? You know, with other girls, you know, info wanted. But they are posting it as being the owner that is running out the property. And, yeah, go out there. Take just walk around. That a we'll mail you the keys. I mean, so it's, you know, once again, just just be cautious of scammers for sure.

Speaker 1: They find all sorts of weird little ways. Teo, try and insert themselves into the situations. Good to know you're on the lookout for him and beat him back whenever they come at us. so that's that's fantastic. If you want to work with a real estate agent who's keeping those scammers at bay, that's a terrible transition, but we're going to roll with it anyway. Give Angie a call. You could get in touch any time at 919538 64 77. If you want to call or text Angie to get in touch and find out about buying or selling your home learned the ins and outs of the process is. All you have to do is call or text angy at 91953864757 Well, luckily, Angie in that situation, you did not have to learn from a mistake. You figured it out as you were going through and got it right the first time around. But we know that nobody's perfect. And whenever we start out in, you know any mode of our careers, you know anything you're doing for the first time or doing new in life, sometimes you'll make mistakes. And so I just wanted to see if maybe we can have a little humility on today's show. Also, see if we can maybe underscore the importance of experience on the program today. And maybe we can look back to the beginning of your career and see some areas where maybe you realized now, looking back many years later that you either made a mistake or just maybe not even a mistake. But just how you've sort of evolved over time with your experience to become a better agent. You you game for this?

Speaker 2: Yeah, let's do this

Speaker 1: s So let's talk about preparation. First of all, can you maybe tell me about a time way back at the beginning, when you were either underprepared or I guess you could have been over prepared. Or maybe you overthought a situation with a buyer or seller.

Speaker 2: Yeah, sure. You know, when representing buyers we have tio. Well, it's our job and our role to share our expertise right to, you know, give guidance as faras material facts, you know, point out locations. Areas may be things that could hurt them when it comes to future resale. Right. But, you know, I have put a sock in my mouth before by just giving too much personal feedback, you know, because my opinion, as far as the look or the style of the home versus their opinion can be completely different. And, you know, that's something that has a real estate agent. We need to make sure that we're not overstepping our boundaries on given opinions, too too much. You know where they're for the advice to educate them, to share our you know, our expertise but not give our personal opinion. So, you know, before I have maybe made a comment like, Oh, this kitchen's a little small. They're like, Oh, I thought it was perfect, you know, And I I don't know, you know, specific instances because I've learned, you know, I've been doing this for 12 plus years now, So I've learned a lot throughout this, you know, decade plus that I've been in real estate, so I don't know specific, you know, instances. But I know definitely in the very beginning, there's been times where almost I've said things that almost could be insulting because they loved it or, you know, maybe not even insulting. But it almost made them question There, there, You know how much they loved a home because of something I said

Speaker 1: It sounds like you almost used to show the homes as if it was going to be your home and not their home. And

Speaker 2: yes, yes. Yeah. So you know, once again it it's, you know, our our job, Teo. Kind of. You know, buyer beware, make you aware of situations or you know what? For example, you know, this home backs up, Tio a busy ride. You know, this is something you might be okay with, but the next buyer might not. And I just want to put that out there. But you decide how you want to handle it, you know? But when it comes to given, you know, be back on colors and lay out, You know, we have to be cautious on how much of our personal, ah feedback we give.

Speaker 1: Just taking some of the opinion out of it. Sounds

Speaker 2: yes. Yes.

Speaker 1: Now, I know you're a master communicator today, but did you make any mistakes in the past when it came to communicating with clients?

Speaker 2: Oh, yeah. I have one client. Mike who? Mike. We've actually had the pleasure of helping him. I think 445 times. No long, long time ago. I didn't clearly understand how the contingent sale addendum worked and there's, you know, with with paperwork and all of the real estate paperwork that we get into. I mean, there are so many different, you know, exclusions. You know, this thing overrides that. I mean it. Get a little I mean, it's where you need to get a real estate attorney involved, right? To makes you clearly understand what this statement means. But, yeah, I communicated that the contingent Sela dende um red one way and it indeed did not. I pretty much stated that Oh, we can accept this offer and should a better offer coming along, you can move forward with the other offer, and that's more of II was taken. The what I've learned in new home sales when I was an onsite agent because they always have are not always missed time. They have a kind of a first writer refusal, but it doesn't work that way with resale homes. And so I end up selling Mike's home for free because I made a big, big era and we received another offer on his home on, and we had been on the mark for a little while to bits under contract. Received a second offer that was a cash sale, and it was actually above where our current offer. Wass and Mike couldn't move forward with that offer. As I had explained he could she should that situation arise? So, yeah, I ended up selling his his home for free, to make up the loss that he would have had. So there's definitely been two mistakes with communication, you know where you know I didn't communicate something properly as faras maybe in a den, dumb or something. But you know, we live and we learn we make those mistakes and we correct them were needed. And that's exactly where I what I did. And Mike, we have still after that. He even then used us to buy, so it's all good. It worked out that way. Yeah, there can be mistakes with communication

Speaker 1: and that just it's good to have those lessons early on because then you may get better for many, many years to come, and I know that that's what you guys have certainly been able to do. It's one thing to make a mistake, another thing to then learn from that mistake, which is a very positive thing, and I would imagine Angie to that for a lot of agents. You know, not even just focusing on on you here. Just agents in general. It's a constant learning process because kind of like your career, arc when you started out, you know, sort of on the buy side, Then you've gotta learn the sell side When you kind of flipped over to that side and then you became a you know,

Speaker 2: a

Speaker 1: broker and leading a team. And now you've got multiple employees. And so now you're a business owner in addition to being on agent. And so it's just kind of there's all these different layers that any agents going toe as their career changes and grows there constantly being exposed to new processes and new rules and regulations. And I was a

Speaker 2: new home sales in the very, very beginning. And you know, the way that that process works is completely different from resale. And we have to also remember that our contracts, you know, the North Carolina Real State Commission. Actually, every year they send out new contract agenda. Not all of them are updated, but you know fairly often, for example, this past year, the new thing that was put into a lot of the documents was wire fraud addendum. So going back to scamming you know, this is a big thing that was updated last year, but our paperwork is constantly being changed and updated the overall contract. I think its been goodness maybe about seven plus years ago that it was actually completely changed. A sparks how the due diligence period is now. You know something that we we work through, but yeah, there's constant changes. We have to always make sure that we are, you know, getting the education that we need so we can advise our clients properly.

Speaker 1: Great point, Sanji. One more little example. Here's we talked about just learning from past mistakes. I tend to be a pretty agreeable person, so it's hard for me to say no to people. Many times it's It's something I have to actively work. You know? I'd like to tell people yes, make them happy, you know? I know I know this about myself. So I would imagine working with clients. You're a pretty positive person as well. Was it difficult for you to kind of learn the word no or to disagree with a client, not just kind of tell them what they want to hear.

Speaker 2: 100%. And I'm a yes person anyways, You know, I always like to be a people pleaser. I like for everyone to be happy. I don't like disagreements, So that's just me as an individual. So that, of course, you know, feeds into my profession as well. But over time I have learned to say no. And I would say times that have really stuck out to me, that I've been just more positive and confident about saying no is working with a client, you know, working with a client and has to be a win win, just like they might be interviewing agents. And they might choose me as their agent. But you know what? If I feel like I wouldn't be the best representation for them, you know, maybe they are not in line with my ideas, my thoughts, just a way of doing business. You know, I can say no to them. So that's a mistake that I've made in the past, where you know, every client that came along, I felt the need to work with. And now that's not the case. Now I love our business. You know I'm in this business, of course, because it's my profession. I love what I d'oh, but there are, unfortunately some clients that we have interactions with that. You know, it's not a positive experience, and sometimes, you know, we have to fire the client. I did that recently, you know, But it needs to be a win win. So I am definitely a yes person and always, you know, yes. When helpin out, I go above and beyond for our clients. But, you know, sometimes we just have to put our foot down to say no. That's not the way that we operate. You know, that's not in line with our culture. And you know what? Let's part ways.

Speaker 1: Yeah, it's sometimes is necessary to do, and that's got to be on the same page. You need to enjoy the relationship, and it's all a big part of the process. Hopefully, that was helpful segment for you as a listener and thinking about working with an agent, thinking about buying or selling your home in the future. If you've got any questions, you want to talk to Angie about the process, you can see she's learned a lot over her time. That's how she's built such an incredible team at a cool realty. And it's interesting to look back at some of the mistakes that the beginning of her career and then how you learn from those mistakes and move forward. We've all certainly fallen into that boat, and obviously the goal. You learn from those mistakes so that you can limit them going forward. And that is what Angie and her team have certainly done. Fun segment. Thanks for playing along and being being so helpful there. Angie, if you've got questions for Angie and caller text 919538 60 for 77 That's 9195386477 Angio Show you how she and the team will help you get your home sold for top dollar or help you get into your dream. Home strategies and communication tools All the things that they utilize these days to help those dreams come true for clients, So if you want to reach out again, call or text. Angie 919538 64 77 more coming up on today's show State in This is the savvy real torque with magical way. It's

Speaker 2: time for the mail bag we want

Speaker 1: to hear from you or been says a friend of mine told me to try to avoid paying mortgage insurance on my loan. What do I need to know about that? And how can I avoid?

Speaker 2: Yeah, so the norm is if you invest or put in 20% into the home price, you then can avoid paying mortgage insurance. So that's 20% down. Payment will eliminate pain that mortgage insurance and the whole point of mortgage insurance is protection to the lender. So they're collecting a little action every single month. And you know they get to put that away because the less that you're putting down on your homos faras the down payment, the more likely that you would be to default on the home. Because more than likely, you're not as qualified as a buyer versus someone who financially can put down 20% into the home. Now there are some other loan programs where you can eliminate that mortgage insurance as well. But the known is 20%. And just remember that, you know, although in the beginning maybe you don't put down 20%. Maybe you put down, you know, 5% after you owned the home for quite some time, and you get to that point where you've paid off 20% of the home. You can get it, re appraise, work with the lender, refinance, and you then can eliminate that mortgage insurance at that point. So it doesn't always have to be something that you do from the very beginning.

Speaker 1: It's a great question. Corbett. Thank you for submitting that one to us for sure. Susan's got another question here as well as we get ready to wrap up for this week's program. Susan's from Carrie and says, My husband is going to relocate for work in about half a year. When's the best time to start the process of selling our current home? And what are the first steps to consider?

Speaker 2: Yeah, Susan s O. Congrats. You know, on the reload that's super exciting, but it is never too soon to start the process when it comes to selling your home. There's often times that I meet with sellers and they say, Angie, you need to have my home on the market in the next week, and we can make that happen. But many times you know they are away is out. Maybe they're six months out, maybe their year out. And it's never too soon to start that conversation because, you know, once we go through our listing presentation with you and give you guidance on the steps of the process immediately, we can send our professional stage. You're out. She can give you your to do list. So then you don't feel overwhelmed and just bombarded with Oh, my goodness. Now I have to get back home. Show ready Really, really fast because it's all last minute. Instead, we can go ahead and send her on out, even if you're, you know, looking to sell your home six months in the future. So, you know, if you're thinking about selling your home, whether it's now or even a year from now, start the process of meeting with a real estate agent. And so our team, we would love to meet with you and do a listing presentation with you. And the whole point of that is we could tell you more about ourselves, tell you about our teams set up and how we operate, go through our marketing plan and then, of course, share with you comparables and in that proceed sheet, because that's probably most important to you.

Speaker 1: You've been listening to the savvy real tour podcast on Walter Store Hold alongside Angie Cole. She's the owner and broker in charge of a coal realty here in the triangle. And if you have questions for Angie, we invite you to go online to a coal realty dot com. Listen to pass podcast episodes on the website, read the block and all the great information, including the option to find a home right there on the website. That's a coal realty dot com, and you can also call Angie with your questions. 919578 31 28