 Good afternoon. I am super excited that you guys have joined me today and we are together again from last week I've got Brooke Bryant with me here And she is the realtor of us duo and I'm on the cleaning side of things and together We're here to answer lots of questions for you and I know today is super big deal for us because we have a lot of house cleaners that are joining us today from my side of the world where they are looking for opportunities to Upsell services to their clients. We're getting ready to sell their homes as house cleaners We do a lot of move-in move-out cleans And so this is a great opportunity where you can learn some stuff today from Brooke That is going to save us lots of headache and heartache from us trying to second guess all that stuff So with that welcome Brooke Bryant tell us a little bit about who you are and where you are and how it is that you Made it to this show So great to be here. I'm nice to see you I'm happy to be back for my second week Brooke Bryant. I'm a realtor in Charlotte, North Carolina I've been in real estate for about 11 years now and Love to work with buyers love to work with sellers residential real estate Maintenance repairs that you can be done on a budget to get your house ready to sell Well, thank you so much I've got lots of questions and I don't even know where to begin but I did I did understand That you've put together a really special checklist for us today And so I wanted for us to be able to go through some of those items on the checklist because I know lots of people Are getting ready to sell their homes and they're kind of like where do I start? What do I work on first? What is the process? Do I get the realtor to come to the house first and all that stuff? So let me ask and we'll just start from the very beginning and we will assume that We're just going to go from the very beginning So if this is something that you guys already know forgive me and if this is something that You're you're learning this for the first time jump in and ask your questions in the sidebar We're going to answer as many of them as we can First question for you though, brook if I was a homeowner and I was getting ready to sell my home At what point of the the phase do I do the home repairs? Is that before I call the realtor is it after I call the realtor like at what point do I get the realtor involved? Well, if you're thinking about listing your home for sell Then there are things in your home that you know probably need to be addressed So go ahead and address that It gives your home looking at Then when you Do things that So it's easy to overlook things that they know with some experience they know what Home inspectors are looking for what these are trying to report and And then they can guide you in making those repairs and then Stop for just a second. I've got a really bad echo on your microphone. Yeah, me too I wonder if you take the microphone off or unplug it if that will make a difference So can you hear me? Yeah, I can hear you just fine You can't hear me. Um unplug the microphone Can you hear me now? You can't hear me now. You can't hear me now, but I can't hear you Okay, so we have we have to have something be different um, so plug the microphone back in Technical difficulties. I love when this happens. I'm usually not the person that knows how to solve the technical difficulties But we're going to figure this out. This is a really important conversation and super worth us figuring this out Okay, can you hear me now? And you're muted You're muted. Can you unmute? Well, you guys get to see what it's like when we have technical difficulties This is uh, this is embarrassing But this is real business right in real life stuff like this happens and as as embarrassing as it is Um, you're you're still muted brook. Is there there you go You're unmuted now Okay, I can I can I can hear you down at the bottom of the screen where it says settings Um, click on settings and then change your microphone I know it's so embarrassing, right? But this is real life when we stumble into our customers and like weird things happen We have to just kind of like oh no, this is the way that we planned it. Although we did not plan this part Okay, I'm not sure which microphone to change it to I can hear you now. I can hear you now That's perfect. Okay. We're good Yes, yes, okay So back to me your question and I want to thank you guys for hanging in with us as embarrassing as that was This is real life and so in real life lots of weird stuff happens And uh at our company we always say we're like the little weevil people Do you remember those little egg-shaped people I'm dating myself But we say they weevil people wobble, but they don't fall down We're the same kind of thing and in your business It's going to happen as well And if you are selling your home you can expect to be weeviling and wobbling As you go through the process because all kinds of weird stuff happens all the time So don't be flustered if something like this happens to you just like hey, it's real life So i'm going to over again. We'll do like this the clapboard like we're starting over Brooke tell us What what at what process do you get the the uh realtor involved in the process of you selling your home So when you're thinking of selling your home Go ahead and make the repairs that you know that you see on a day basis and you know that need to be made But then there are going to be things that you may just get used to you You may not know this when the realtor Comes to your home or when you're interviewing realtors, they may Point out some things that need to be repaired that you have overlooked You weren't aware of things that they know that the home inspector is going to catch on their inspection And then some people even do a pre-inspection report. They'll have this typically the buyer Gets the inspection done, but sometimes sellers will do a pre-inspection and an inspector come out Tell all the repairs they need to be They need to be dressed and then they'll make those repairs So that when they do put the home in the market they look we've had it pre-inspected. We've made all the repairs So that was in great shape So if I weren't going to sell my home and you said make a pre-inspection checklist What do I put on that list that checklist if I don't I've never done this before like if I don't sell my house every day I don't know what to put on that list. So what kind of stuff do I I've got a I've got a checklist that I provide for my clients Um, and it's got things that are very common for home inspectors to reflect to find on their report and so What what do I do? I wait then for the realtor to come and to give me something like that or to ask for one in advance or In advance. Um, yeah, well, you can ask your realtor Um for if you if you're working with a realtor you can ask your realtor for For a checklist to help guide you with the repairs that you want to make You can google The common repairs that need to be made made before selling your home and then um, also just things that you know and we all have them things that I really have needed to do the cough around the bathroom. I should go ahead and do that or I really need to Fix that broken pane of glass on the window those sorts of things that you know to be done But Your realtor can get you a checklist and then you can find checklist on your own as well Okay, awesome I know that you've put together some slides here for us And I think one of those things on the list that you had mentioned earlier was um changing all the air filters Before like for example before you start working with the realtor just to set yourself up in the best situation That when they walk through for the first time there are not glaring things at them That they're going to put on a list just a couple of things that you can do as you go Can you share a little bit of information with us about that? And what is the process for for making something like this happen? Do you do this before or after the realtor? Yeah, um Also, I'm getting a lot of feedback The echo from yours. I don't know if you can hear that Okay, but I'm getting I'm getting echo more technical difficulties. Whoo. How about this? Can you hear me now? I can hear you now But yes, you can yes still some echo, but I'll Okay, I can't hear you now How about now? Yeah, I'm getting again technical difficulties. Yeah, getting uh All right. Can you hear me now? I can hear you And I don't think I've got any echo. Can you hear me now? I can I can hear you. Okay. You're coming through my computer now So I can take these off. Okay. Is it echoing? It is echoing it is Oh, no Yeah, um, is it is it variable or is it crazy? I'm gonna try and power for it. Okay so so on my list of On my list of things that I have on the checklist One of the things I see all the time are air filters just just dirty air filters and They're so easy to change But when I see those I think well wonder if they have not been taking good care of their hvac system Because if that's not addressed so they probably haven't had the hvac Maintenance done on it in the spring and the fall. It just looks like Because that's a pretty easy one to change. So it just it puts you automatically first thing in the mindset of okay, I'm going to take a very close look at this house Um, thanks for explaining that. Um, I know that there are little things that we can do around the house And as house cleaners we often find ourselves in a situation Where when we get called in for a move in move out clean We find ourselves making a checklist of our own and this might not be something that the homeowners did But it's something that we're saying hey, wait a second before the new people move in We've got to replace and it's a whole series of things like the air filters Another thing that's on our list Is it's not going to be things that we're going to be able to fix But things that we have to clean over like the nail pops for example because we know that the um The repairmen are going to come in and they're probably going to leave some kind of dust Like after they do the sanding and stuff. We might have to come back and clean over again So if we know that they're coming and there are nail pops or there there's blue tape We know that we can either leave a drop cloth or we can just leave a note saying hey You know clean up this area when you're done so that we don't have to come back in and clean the whole entire house There are little tiny things like that right On your checklist, uh, what are some of the things that you recommend that um That people put on the list before they even call you or there are some to-dos like the air filters Or the nail pops that they can do before they even they even get as far as you Some really easy things to address And are real noticeable things Something as simple as go through and make sure that you've changed all of the light bulbs in the house And don't forget even like the light bulb in the oven or um the light bulb over the stove or up in the attic Check your ceiling fans If there is a wobble in the ceiling fan that's going to show up on the inspection report So have that um have that addressed Tightening um Just your switch plate covers those things will show up a lot of times And an inspector is going to check every door in the house So check your door knobs and the strike plate covers make sure that they're tightened They're not loose. They're not wobbly that your doors aren't sticking Those are easy things to fix If you have broken grout in your bathroom Or a broken tile Try and fix those Things that you can do yourself that you don't have to get a professional in in place to do You know the The when you open your door, there's a little stopper that protects the you know, so that your door doesn't hit the wall Make sure those are in place and if Open your door and it has damaged your wall then replace that and make that repair as well um any leaks In your sinks Those are those are easy ones to fix so just all the little things That you can do as a homeowner yourself that you don't need to hire a professional to come in and do So what is the fair amount like if I was going to sell my house? Obviously, it's because I'm trying to get money out of it How much money is a fair price to say like hey spend this much money on your house getting your house ready to sell And if you spend I don't know 500 bucks or 5000 bucks. Are you going to make the money back out of it when you go to sell your house? Of course, depending on the size of the home and the type of finishes in the home um And the age of the home, um, I would say It would be reasonable to expect to spend 500 to a thousand on those repairs To to get the home ready and that would include some exterior repairs too if you needed to replace any guttery or Downspouts if you need to have your hvac system have some maintenance done on that Um Most of the interior repairs are going to be fairly inexpensive unless you need to do something a little bit bigger like replacing A garage door opener or replacing a microwave um replacing some ceiling fans that sort of thing, but Don't be shocked 500 to a thousand dollars And so 500 to a thousand dollars Is that before I get the realtor involved? And if the realtor comes and looks at the repairs that I've done and let's say that I've already spent a thousand dollars And then they give me another list or this list that you mentioned Could I then be expected to spend more money on top of that or is that like do I just say oh, hey I already spent my thousand dollars Tough luck. That's as far as we go. Like am I allowed to do that? so repairs are all negotiable so I come into a home that's been very well maintained and um, I make some very small suggestions for repairs Um, you know, that's not going to cost a lot of money. Maybe just um, you know fixing Fixing replacing a light fixture that's not working something like that But then there are homes that have a lot of age on them Maybe the folks that lived there for 30 40 plus years They're used to everything. They haven't made any repairs. It's going to be different scenarios. So that newer well-maintained home They make some repairs a buyer comes in they see a few things on the inspection list Then the seller is very likely to make those repairs an older home It may be a situation where the seller is saying i'm going to sell this home as is I'm not going to make any of the repairs, but that's going to be reflected in the price So it's really situational Some folks don't have the money upfront to make those repairs So they're going to have that reflected in the price and price it accordingly and the realtor will help you with that They'll tell you what homes Similar homes in your area have been selling for and if yours is above average you can ask More than that if it needs a lot of repairs Then you're probably going to Price it With that in mind if you're not willing to make any of those repairs or able to make any of those repairs That's really situational. Yeah. Wow. Um, I want to stop for a second Thank you for explaining that and hello to everybody that's joined us. I'm super excited that you guys are here Uh gen xx says hello I was mistaken about my siding my sliding shower door problem the rubber for the bottom Track is gone in one area and the rubber on the guide clip in the middle partly degraded too Um, I would love for you brook to give us some examples If you have some of what that is I'll share with you real quick while you're while you're thinking of your examples In the house cleaning industry what we see when that little rubber slip is gone or it's broken What happens is as the as the shower door opens one of the things that we've seen is that water Slides down that little tiny track that gets really icky And as it slides down if like the shower door hits a wall It will hit like the baseboard or it will run down and it ruins the baseboard in that area And it becomes all discolored and oftentimes swollen I don't know if you guys know this or not But in a lot of the newer homes and this is probably in the last like 10 or 15 years A lot of the baseboards are not actual wood It's like a compressed wood almost like a pressed cardboard and so when it gets wet it gets discolored But it also warps And so it's it's beyond just painting it and like trying to make it look nice But that rubber stopper thing there's a little roll of tape and you can get it At most stores like home people or lows and it literally just slides right in but there's a trick There are different sizes like different thicknesses And so I know that one of the services that we've offered is an upsell package in a lot of the customers homes that we've gone to as house cleaners We have replaced that bottom strip But you have to I usually carry three or four different sizes with me Because it slides inside and if you get the wrong one It will not go in no matter what and there it's very inexpensive It's like a dollar and a half or something for that whole little uh tape and it just unrolls It's kind of like a little I don't know just a little rubber thing that slides And it's very easy to replace and then you just clip it off at the length of the shower door But that's a really really easy inexpensive fix that will prevent the baseboards or If the water leaks and it leaks onto the tile floor It can like eat the grout apart and then it just weakens the grout And then pieces of the grout will like fall apart and then when you go to vacuum it up I hate when this happens. We vacuum up pieces of the grout Then we got to replace the grout. So you can prevent it with just the tape that slides in there Brooke, have you seen some of those and what do you recommend when somebody does that? Is it Do you recommend an easy fix or is that something you got to call a professional to come to come do at the the state of closing So home inspector is going to spend a lot of time in bathrooms and kitchens So they're going to find a lot of those issues and rightfully so because water can be very damaging to To a home water that's not routed properly. So Spend time in your bathroom making sure that it's called properly making sure that you know If you've got a shower door that opens There's a little lip on there that keeps the water inside the shower So it doesn't leak out and and do that damage to your grout so that you don't have to to repair that And any gaskets or seals That you can replace on your own a lot of those like angel said they're easily accessible at your local home Improvement store. Most of them are so easy to fix and you can find pros like angel On youtube it will teach you take step by step how to do some of these repairs that you can do on your own Get an inspection report They can be kind of scary. I mean they can you know be 50 or more pages and And this is one here and the inspector Will say on there Can you can you pull that up so I can see it? I'm curious how that you said 47 pages or something. Yeah, so oh my goodness Yeah Well, that's that's That's an official document. It is an official document and inspectors are certified they're professionals and They also want to they want to give The potential buyer very good information about the home. They also want to protect themselves So everything in there they find are going to say Have a license contractor Make this repair And that most real estate contracts don't say that they'll say have it done in a workman like manner But if I'm a first time home buyer, I've never seen this process before and it says oh that gasket on the shower is broken I need to have A plumber come in there and repair that well That's going to be a very expensive fix as opposed to the fix that angel is told you dollar 50 So if you can catch these things before an inspector comes in You know, those are things that um need to be done around your house Go ahead and do it before so that it doesn't end up on that inspection report And if you can come out with an inspection report that's 15 pages as opposed to 50 pages Then you're going to have a smoother transaction It's been less money Um, hello everybody. I see denise. I see um Denise, hello. How are you doing? Good to see you. I see alan here today. Hi alan. Melanie is here. Hi you guys This is so cool. Uh, lori is here. Hi lori great, uh don bricker cleaning here from sullick city, utah Awesome. I was born and raised in utah. So My heart is close to Um, and I'm not I'm happy that I'm not there at this time of year because it's cold Um, but hello sveta. This is great to see you. Uh, mariam is here We've got lots of great folks here you guys. I'm super excited I did have a question here from virginia that I wanted to answer while we're in the process of talking about getting a licensed Home inspector to come out and take a look at the house Virginia says when making an offer on a house, is it possible or okay to ask the seller to pay for a thorough professional cleaning? Yes, it is And as a house cleaner what we want to know is we want to know and this is this is what got me into the This whole entire conversation in the first places I have to confess I made a youtube channel YouTube show and I said that my least favorite Jobs that we get in cleaning are the move-in move-out cleans working with realtors And boy did I get my hands smacked on that one Because the problem that we have as house cleaners is Is it the realtor that's paying for it? Is it the seller that's paying for it? Is it the buyer that's paying for it? And a lot of times it's confusing Because all three of those parties think that they're in control And so instead of the house cleaner having one boss and one set of directives They have three and so the realtor says hey, this is what I expect This would be really nice and the house cleaner's like yeah, yeah, okay And the homeowner is like and no no no This is what i'm paying for if it's the the seller and then the buyer is like no no no I'm moving in this is what I want And so my recommendation is yes, you can please yes hire a professional house cleaning service Request one at the very beginning and then all three of you The buyer the seller and the realtor and we're going to lean on the realtor for this Make sure that you're all in agreement exactly what you want, right? Because if there if there are expectations that somebody's just miraculously amazing Guessing in their head that this is what's going to happen, but it's not communicated to the house cleaner I promise you it's not going to happen and then everybody's going to be disappointed and they're going to be like i'm not paying for this I'm not kidding. It's it's the biggest state of confusion So a couple of things from the house cleaner's viewpoint and then brook i'll let you share with us from the realtor's Place, but from a house cleaners perspective. Here's the thing If i'm coming into clean your house, I want to honor all of you I want the person that's leaving the home to leave with their head held high and I want them to leave like Yes, this was an awesome house that you sold to this other family I want the contract from the new buyer Okay, i'm going to do a worksheet But i'm going to leave my worksheet at the home when I leave and i'm hoping that the new people walk in and they're like Whoa, this looks amazing. I've got to hire this house cleaner, right? So I want to honor them as well I also know that the realtor works in this neighborhood and so if my business is in this neighborhood I want that realtor calling me back going wow you did such an amazing job. I have another house for you, right? So I want to honor all three of those groups of people And so what's really important for me is and and I can't do my job If you give me busted information if you give me faulty facts If you tell me that oh, yeah, we have air filters that are in the in the bathroom closet Can you go ahead and replace those and I go? Yes, I can and then I get there and they're not there Don't don't give me faulty information because then I'm left scrambling going wait a second I don't even have you know the right stuff that I need here I'm going to have to stop and go to the store to buy it if I have to go buy air filters and they're $30 a pop I'm going to have to charge and charge it to you And so then the price is not going to be the same and it's going to make me look like a fool There's a lot of weird stuff like that if I get to the house for some reason and this happens a lot The water and the electricity will be turned off I can't vacuum if I don't have electricity if I put suds on something I can't wipe it off if I don't have any water, right? So please don't turn off the water and don't turn off the electricity Just like I know I know you're moving and you've probably already relocated to a new place But the realtor wants to walk in and turn on all the lights and I promise you this if I'm doing the job I want all the lights on as well. I do not want to clean your house in seven o'clock at night dusk And hope I didn't miss anything, right? I'm not I'm good, but boy. I'm not that good Okay, so I want to make sure that all of the expectations are set and that they are realistic I can't tell you how many times we've gone into clean a house and what looks like it's going to be You know the realtor will say oh, it'll only take you like three hours to clean it It takes like 16 hours to clean it Okay, so let's set really realistic expectations And that's not going to be cheap the move and move out cleans are kind of expensive So yeah, Virginia if you can request the seller to pay for it Yeah And for the seller if you can get the buyer to pay for it Yeah And realtor if you want to pay it and give it as a gift. Yeah, but just Just as a house cleaner just let us know who's right in the check And who's the final say in whatever happens because usually this this happens like 100 of the time The seller wants something and the buyer wants something and there's usually a huge gap in between The seller wants to give as little as possible and the buyer wants as much as they can get for the same money And then the realtor wants to do right by whoever they're representing So please please please make sure that you guys are all on the same page And then I won't have to give you these long rants Well from the realtor's perspective Hopefully your realtors the mindset that they want it to be a win-win situation for everybody involved And angela you said that you've got Three parties involved the seller the buyer and the realtor. Well, you probably have two realtors the seller's realtor and the buyer's realtor So you've got a lot of moving parts in there. So yeah, everybody does need to be on the same page As far as the utilities go my checklist the first thing on there says, please make sure all utilities are on water electricity gas And when the realtor calls to schedule the home inspection the inspector should say Are all utilities on is there an alarm system and what is the code? Because that happens a lot to the inspector will go and i'm sure angela probably you've gone out there and you don't have the That the alarm code access So yeah, try and think of all of those things to make it as smooth as possible and yeah, if That's something that you need to be aware of if if the buyer asks for the home to be professionally clean And the seller agrees to do it make sure you know what that looks like does that include If the refrigerator state or you're going to move the refrigerator and clean behind it Are you going to clean the oven? Are you going to replace all of the vents? Make sure that everybody knows what's included in this clean So that expectations are met and that the price um, isn't going to change Based on what the scope of the job is because you just don't you don't want any surprises if you can avoid them but it is common to ask for the home to be professionally professionally cleaned and Very often it is the realtor provides that as a gift Or the seller will will pay for it But but there are times when the buyer does just choose to pay for it when nobody else is going to And then very often to If the professional clean is not done It's asked to be the home is asked to be what's called going to sweat when the seller leaves But it is so nice if you can provide a professional clean So that you're moving into a nice fresh clean space And because moving so daunting you don't want to be Cleaning out those cabinets before you put your things in there So it is a wonderful thing to ask for and a wonderful thing to give Um, and thanks for bringing that up. I know that as house cleaners We've offered what's called upsell and special packages and it's part of our extended cleaning program Where we have an ongoing client base who need small home repairs As they just live in their homes And so because we're in the homes every single week or every other week Oftentimes we're the first to see things that are either starting to fall apart or like the toilet is running And in the background of our cleaning and we're like, ah, the flapper needs to be replaced And we've put together small packages that are they're not full maintenance packages that you'd use for move out clean But they keep a lot of things in repair And so for example, one of the things that we do with a small Upgrade package and it's kind of like just a maintenance package is we do replace those flap those little flappers that go over the The what do you call it the drain in the toilet that lets the water in and out of the toilet tank We replace those because they're not expensive But lots of people don't want to get their hands dirty or they don't know how to replace them or they don't want to call a whole I say a whole plumber. I mean you never call a half a plumber But you don't want to call a plumber out just to replace that right? But the house cleaner is insured and they're in your house And there are a lot of little tiny things they can do like replace the air filters and replace the batteries And your carbon monoxide and your smoke detectors those kinds of things are really important Um along with the um and this is this is an odds and ends project It's not a full maintenance and you don't need to be a journeyman handyman to do it But a lot of times like the window Areas will start separating like because of the moisture in the air and the The temperatures will get you know expand and contract the windows And so then there's like little ugly little You know Breaks and it's not broken I mean you just put a little bit of cocking in there and take a wet paper towel and kind of like seam it together And it looks nice again But there are little things like that that we can do with a cocking gun And we can do to replace the air filters Fix the back of the flap of the toilet and some of those minor things that just make sure that the The house is not I mean it looks as nice as it can without doing some heavy duty repairs And that's that's a service that you know a house cleaner can do while they're already at your house They can spend an extra hour one day and I recommend this if you have a house cleaner that you know like and trust Ask them if they do any special projects on the side because there are a lot of house cleaners That are like totally I mean one of the things that we do when we clean we clean with an electric drill That has drilled that brushes and so these are people that are qualified to use little power tools and stuff like that If there are small repairs they can do in your home, you know It saves you from hiring a multiplicity of different people for each individual different task There are people that do certain things though that as a house cleaner I recommend you let them do what they do for example window washing on a move and move out clean We don't even wash windows and here's the reason why although You walk into a house and the windows are sparkling clean. It makes the house all around look way way cleaner Most house cleaners are not actually licensed for window washing They're not licensed to be on two-story ladders or they don't have the great big trucks with the the truck mount They don't have the water and the the pressure washers and all that stuff And so we recommend even as house cleaners the house cleaners don't do carpet cleaning and window washing Because those are actually much bigger jobs And although it's tempting and I just gave you this big spiel about the upsell projects But while it's tempting to go to the grocery store and rent a little rugby doctor and try to clean your carpets You can drop so much water in those carpets That while the carpets might look clean You're actually leaving a lot of water damage in those Carpet pattings and then you can create mold without even knowing it And then the new homeowners move in and a couple weeks later They start to smell the mold and it becomes mildewy and it's not it's it's not Now you're I mean You've moved on from it. It's not your your ability to fix it We'll let the professionals come in and do that for the carpet Let them come in and do it because they have moisture readers they can read how wet the carpets are They've got those great big industrial fans. They've got water extractors. They've got those great big hoses They've got vans that I mean they're they're totally trained to do that So for for a house cleaner know what your limits are What you can do and then know when you have to recommend Somebody from your bni network or something that you know, you're tossing business their way But know what you don't do as well But that's a great resource if if you are selling your house and you do have a professional house cleaner who's coming in Let them know. Hey, we're gonna be putting the house on the market in the next month or two As you're cleaning the house look for these things and if you If you can make any of those repairs, let me know we'll work out a price for that It makes such a big difference to have fresh clean Caulking in your kitchen and that's something that's going to come up on an inspection report So that's one less thing that will will be on that report Get the toilets fixed if they can do fresh beat of caulk around the toilet almost every single inspection report I see the toilet is loose and wobbly So if you can tighten that down put a fresh beat of caulk around it and Make sure that doesn't show up on your inspection report. It's going to look clean It's going to eliminate that issue And then and your and your house cleaner somebody that you know and trust is there and then that's also one less Appointment that you have to make and okay Oh, we have to be here at 2 o'clock today because the plumber's going to come and do this Sort of the handy man's going to come and do this if it can all be done at one time That's more convenient for you. So that's a that's a great service to be able to to resource That's going to make your house look so good to have all of those the fresh caulking done And and and those are things that people are going to notice You know when You walk into your house that may look fantastic But somebody's going over with a fine tooth fine to come We're going to see those things that you don't necessarily see on a daily basis that your house Cleaning service might be able to point out to you And i'm i'm really glad that you brought up Little things that you do with a fine tooth comb little little things that you check I know that this slide fix loose doors It this is one of those things I we call it house blind Like if I live in a house and the door only turns a certain way like in the house I live in right now I have one door and the doorknob turns the opposite way from all the other doorknobs in the house and I know To turn it the other way just because I've lived in the house long enough And it's one of those things I just need to unhook the door and flip it upside down or something and fix it But if somebody were to walk in it's like you're locked in the room Right if you turn the knob the way that it turns in all the other knobs in the house You'd be going like oh my goodness I'm locked in here and you'd be like banging on the door like let me out And it's in one of the bathrooms But the reality is it's just the whoever put the door knob and they put it in upside down And so it turns the wrong way So there are little things like that that totally can be fixed because you know the house right And it seems like a non-issue to you But let's say somebody moved into your house and it's a little kid go into that bathroom in the middle of the night And they can't figure out a turn up That's going to be kind of scary for that kid. So if it's something that you know Could be fixed go ahead and take care of that One of the things that we ask when we go through uh Excuse me a homeowner's home for the first time when we're doing a walkthrough with them because We're going to be the next set of eyes on the property regularly And so as we come into the house, it's really easy to like oh, I know my way around here. I'm good No, you may not be good if there are things that I call it trickery where like there's a A mirror that's hanging on one nail because somebody didn't really know how to hang pictures Properly and then you go in and you go to wipe down the mirror and you're just treating it like a regular mirror And then it falls off and it busts and now you got to buy a new one So we always ask the homeowner. Is there anything in the house? That I need to be aware of before I come in and clean and I give them this scenario Is there something that's just like gingerly sitting on a shelf that like if I walk past it fast It's going to like fall apart and they're like, oh, yes. I have several of those I'm like, well, great. Let me write it Write this down as I go because I don't I don't want to replace it Right. I don't want to have to unnecessarily replace stuff in the customer's house And if it's in my care custody and control, I have to if it breaks on my watch And so I want to know what all of those things are and then we make a list So that we are a hundred percent clear when we go that like, oh, yes This doorknob and we're just talking about doorknobs This doorknob is like not fully hooked together and like when you go to open it if you pull it too fast It's going to like pull it out of the little thing And then the doorknob is going to go flying across the room And you're going to have to stop and spend a couple minutes trying to put it back together And it's just missing a bolt or something I mean little things like that. Tell me what they are Don't trick me because I don't want to spend 15 minutes trying to fix something that you already know is broken Or you know that it could break like, you know, like what's the most Experience is your friend. You've got enough experience to know that you've had all of those things happen So experience is your friend to use experience in these situations and and and have somebody come in and and Look at your house with those fresh eyes and tell you okay I know you live here. I know it's a great house. You love it. But have you noticed, you know, your doorknobs are goofy You know something like that Because we did we get used to the the little quarks in our home so Yeah, things these little quarks that are key to us They're they're going to pop up on an inspection report or yeah, they're going to be an issue down the road for somebody else And and i'm glad you brought that up because I would rather know about it And I would rather fix it on my watch instead of having the the realtor or the insurance inspector or the home inspector Then require that I must get somebody that's a licensed contractor to come out because that's going to be way more expensive than me Pulling out a a nut and a bolt and the screw and tightening it up myself you know it comes up on inspection reports is You know your electrical panel that's in your garage or so very very often those electrical panels are Are held in by screws and if those screws have a point on the end of them It could be the inspector considers it a hazard because it could damage the wiring so they Have on the inspection report have a licensed electrical contractor replace those screws Do you really need to have An electrician come out and replace four screws? No, you don't but the inspector is going to recommend an electrician does it because that's That's live electricity and he's you know, he's gonna he's going to protect himself by saying that So, you know first time homebuyer they see that they're like, oh, yeah You need to have an electrician come in and address this issue. No, not really just replace those screws. So Anything like that that you can get done yourself and you don't have to pay Um a professional and I'm all four professionals and they deserve the money that they make But there are things that That homeowners can do themselves There are some things that you do need to get kind of electrician to come into or a plumber come in and do So do the things you can do and then, you know, if you save whatever money you need to If you do need to get those professionals to come in I was speaking of professionals and not to go off on a rabbit trail But we did a move and move out clean for a couple and the couple decided when they moved They were going to leave this great big It was like one of these old fashioned Freezers that like you had to defrost and everything and then I was happy that they were moving But then I was like, ah, they're leaving the defrosting, you know the freezer We have to defrost because we still have to defrost it But they left it for the new homeowner. I guess they were getting a new modern one or something So they told they told the realtor and the realtor added that into the the specs of the house like oh It has this great big. I don't know 32 cubic feet freezer or whatever that's in the garage and whatever So these people are like, oh, that's so awesome Well, when they were cleaning out the garage and they were moving out they unplugged that freezer And so the freezer is in the garage right where it always was but it was unplugged So the new people show up thinking. Oh, we've got this great big freezer and they opened it up with the light didn't come on So they're like, it's not cold in here. So they adjusted the knob in there It didn't get cold and so during the time that they were doing the walkthrough at the house and they were checking it out I didn't get cold. So they hired an electrician on the the the sellers The sellers dime to come out and fix the electrical wiring in the garage because something was broken The homeowner's like it wasn't broken like everything is working fine, right? The electrician comes out and literally I could you not plugs in the freezer and it starts warring again and the lights come on And it's it's all ready to go and it was as simple as They could have just left a little post-it note inside the freezer that just said hey We unplugged this to conserve electricity You know what I mean? Right? It was just a communication error And the seller had to pay for and a licensed electrician to come out and plug the freezer in the garage back in On the opposite side of that. I had a seller who had a freezer in the garage had to have some work done in the garage and The handyman who came in to do the work unplugged the freezer to move it to do the work behind that And did not plug the freezer back in so all of the Food inside a freezer was ruined And Yeah, the handyman's like no, I'm pretty sure I plugged it back in. I didn't have So yeah, I paid for that one. So you just never know the the things that are going to pop up so So in in lieu of that there are a lot of companies now that are getting way better at documenting their work We had a refrigerator or freezer replaced not too long ago in our own garage And when the guy came out It was one of these where he hauled the old one away and brought the new one But he plugged the new one in and then he took a picture like behind the The um where the plug was plugged into the wall to show that it was plugged in He opened the door took like a picture of the inside He took a picture underneath like it was on the proper risers and whatever it was supposed to be on And then he took a picture of it with the door closed the door opened the side view that like there were no scratches Dense dings whatever it had to be he must have taken like 10 pictures And I was like, whoa, that was really thorough and I just kind of watched him work and he's like hey I apologize, but we have to do this just to cover all of our own bases. I was like, no, no I'm glad you're doing it. I'm just learning from you as I'm watching you You know cover all your bases and document it so that there are no surprises And so that nobody later because this is from from the the contractor standpoint This prevents a homeowner just trying to get a new freezer or something going Uh, it was all dented and broken or it didn't work or it wasn't, you know, whatever They verified that it worked before they left and they made sure that everything was A okay before they left. So I thought that was pretty cool. Yeah, that's really smart to do And especially the real estate transaction where you've got people and you've got Um repairs being made inspections being done Um appraisers that you've got so many people in your home that aren't ordinarily there. So Yeah cross your cross your T's and dot your I's to make sure that You know, somebody's not attributing some Some broken appliance in the home to you when somebody else did it Uh, which reminds me um, and I want to answer this question from gen X X Because she's talking about electrical. She he's talking about electrical wiring I brought uh when I bought my place, which was only six years old had to hire an electrician to rewire the switches That didn't go to what they should Um, and I want to talk about appliances as well But this is one of those things where you assume That the person that does the wiring knows where everything's supposed to go and that it matches up on the breaker box And sometimes it does not And I think this is really an important thing that we bring up Because I think it's important before and you can do this as a homeowner Even before you have the home inspector come out Try all the breakers and make sure that you know what rooms those go to and make sure those are labeled properly If for some reason somebody rewired something or they rerouted wiring and it doesn't if it says jacuzzi and Lo and behold there is no jacuzzi And it's been rewired the bonus room or something you need to know that So that the new homeowner doesn't come in and buy a jacuzzi and then go to hook it up and your bonus room lights go on And like no no jets come out. You know what I mean? You need to know what that is. So I I love that Well, and that's become an issue You know, we're the we're the age of you know, hg tv and do do it yourself projects and and homeowners doing all of these cool things But you know may may do the electrical wiring themselves or if you bought a house that was a flip and You know, you're not sure who did the electrical wiring of it. So that's the that's The importance of having a home inspector to come out and make sure that And there's got to be lots of little things on the report you want to try and eliminate those and and hopefully The end result will be that that home inspection report is pointing out any true deficits in the home that That the safety the structure The soundness of the home that those things can can be addressed if that's an issue You know, we as homeowners can get take care of some of these little things Um gen xx says omg. I thought you were going to say that the ancient freezer died and the seller had to buy them a new one Um, this is interesting and this brings up a question that I hadn't thought of but let me ask you brook as a realtor Um What happens when somebody adds something to their their sale piece? Which is like their ad or whatever that says hey My house has this deep freezer in my garage And then for some reason if it really did die and then the person comes in expecting that there's going to be a freezer There and there isn't one do you just go whoopsy or are you obligated to buy them one because it was in the ad and you said You said that it was there typically on the Contract it'll ask for any property that conveys with the home Um, that's not part of the home And you'll put in there that and it'll say in there that this freezer transfers with no value um, and that's part of If you're getting a loan for the house um Lenders are really really have to make you be very careful about that because that freezer is not part of the appraisal of the home So it can't be attributed any value. So typically it's just a good faith measure. If the freezer stops working It's just considered. Oh, well, it was a freebie anyway. We're not going to make you buy us a new freezer We'll say there's um here in charlotte, north carolina. We have um a real estate instructor who's kind of famous for the story he tells About a home that had a koi pond of you know, the koi the big goldfish pond This the buyers Went to do the walk through the day The closing before they went to the attorneys to make sure everything looked how it was supposed to look And one of the koi in the pond was dead And they said oh They're supposed to be three live koi in this pond and that one's dead so their realtor talked to the other realtor And they said well, sorry that died It's just natural causes and the the new buyers said we're not going to go through with the sale of the house So that realtor are they expensive or something the realtor paid. I think it was over a thousand dollars for a new koi for that pond so In order to close the deal on the house Yeah, yeah, they were adamant that they wanted this this koi and the realtor wanted to keep it, you know keep it The deal moving forward and close that day. So she went and got a new koi for the pond so Is that just on a on a per per basis thing where if somebody asks something situation Yeah, it's to every every transaction is different um And they're just so many moving parts to this sale of a home and Luckily in north carolina all of our closings are done Through a real estate so they can help light us through some of those those strange situations But you know at the end of the day if there's something in your realtor's control That's going to make this a smoother transaction for you and keep it moving forward they're going to work to do that for you and And most realtors that I interact with have cross deals with We work together to try and make sure that all parties are Leave the situation feeling like it was a win for them. So yeah, you just never know what's going to pop up so at what point do Does Do you as a realtor get together with the other realtor and you have to like come together and say my client is being unreasonable What do we have to do to make this deal happen? At what point do you both jump in and you say let's split the difference and buy the koi for the pond Because my my seller is not willing to do it and the buyer is not going to buy the house without it At what point do you get involved or do you try not to do anything like that because it's just not Yeah, I you work with the with the other realtor throughout the process to try and keep it on track because it's a very emotional thing You know a seller think Six of their house differently than the buyer does because the buyer hasn't created any of those memories there yet. They haven't He painted that mural on the wall or planted those rose bushes out there. The seller's got a Very emotional attachment to the house unless it was an investment property So it means something different to To the to the seller and so some feelings get involved and feelings can get hurt and get contentious so the realtors are a little more objective and we want to To get in there and and keep the deal moving forward and try and make sure everybody feels like they've been made whole and and that it's and that they're happy at the end of the transaction Oh, but very much we work together Anita cracks me up. She says and what will the odds be in the next few months after the new owners move in That the local raccoons will have a fish dinner resulting in less than three That's hilarious. Yeah, oh, yeah, that's that's just probably somebody sushi. Yeah That's horrible. But so funny. Oh, I don't mean to laugh at that. I'm sorry Oh, you guys this is so awesome that you've joined us and that you're We want it we want to answer the questions that you guys have I've got lots of questions that I could keep going with questions But jump in and ask any questions that you might have One question that I had for brook while you guys are writing your questions is um, I was curious brook at what point of the realtor process of you jumping in with A buyer or a seller for example where you say this customer has become too Difficult to work with and I know that in the house cleaning we have like certain limits where we're like, whoa, okay Now I'm dealing with like Crazy making at what point do you say, you know, it's not worth the trouble for me as a realtor to try to jump Through all these hoops. This is not going to be a good deal for us and you turn and walk away So I've had that happen Um And it kind of depends on where you are in that, you know, if you're in a transaction had that happen with sellers I had their home listed. We went under contract and there were some Some things that weren't disclosed to me that Contract didn't close So when that when when those potential buyers terminated the contract then I recused myself and and said, you know, I think you need to find another realtor If you are You know, if you're working for a larger firm Then and and you're working with a client and there are just some some conflicts there and you can ask them. Hey that I think that there's probably another realtor in our firm that could better represent you. Would you mind if we reassigned you? So there are so there are ways to handle that But I think It's very rare that there's somebody I just absolutely can't work with you just have to try and put yourself in there You know in their in their mindset It's an emotional process. So if you can try and have some empathy and understanding Then that'll get you a long way. But there are some that are just not good Um, I know there's shady stuff. So you've got to protect yourself too. Um Well, there are ways out. Thanks for explaining that. Um, I know that um, there are some Homeowners probably like every homeowner that thinks their home is probably like more valuable than it really is And so I know that when when We come in as cleaners Of course, they're like expecting they're going to get all the money for the house And they want to pay like no more money because They're their success of selling the house is is really dependent on whatever it is They're hoping to walk away with it and every penny that they have to pay the house cleaners like less money in their pocket But what what is the process of setting a realistic expectation for like? Hey Your home was really meaningful to you because you've got all these memories wrapped up in it But it's not so much You know compared to comps and stuff that are on the market right now you There's a gap. Well, luckily, um, there's Really good data that's out there and you know, just like everything else technology the data is getting better and better and better where we can really, um Hone in on houses just like yours same square footage Same features same size Garage similar a lot within a half a mile. This is what they're selling for so The market speaks for itself um There are situations where you've got Uh a unique property that's not in a neighborhood that's on 10 acres that you know, it's it's a little more difficult to find comfortable sales to help you pinpoint the price on that so so those can be those can be tricky But all you can really do is give them the data that you have The experience that you have and if you're adamant about putting it on the market the market's going to tell them You know if it sits there with no showings Or you get some showings and you get feedback that says the home is really nice But it's priced way too high for what it is Then you can use those resources to help educate your seller that I know that this is this has been your dream home You love it and it's got this value to you, but it doesn't have that value in the current market So if you're really serious about selling then we're going to need to make some adjustments Wow Fantastic information. Thank you so much. I know you have a checklist for our viewers and our listeners today Where can they go to find that? Where can they go to find more information about you? So I believe that's going to be at info at realtrussuccesshub.com forward slash checklists And is is this the best place to get in touch with you as well? um, yeah, um, you can um shoot me an email brook at um And yeah, there's the checklist. It's also got My info on the checklist and hopefully that will help guide you if you're thinking about putting your home on the market That'll be so Some good pointers for things that you could do yourself that you don't have to get a professional in and will help Eliminate some of those items from the inspection report. So prospective buyers Are going to be in a better mindset they're going to they're going to come in and think wow this house is really well maintained That's the top of my list Well, thank you so much for your Thank you so much for your time and attention today. I apologize everybody for all these great questions I apologize for all of the weird technical stuff. Um, I am really delighted I know I look like a buffoon, but I am so excited that I figured out finally how to like show up on live stream My first live stream ever was like six months ago And I was on this very platform. We're using stream yard And somebody invited me on as a guest on their show and I got kind of behind the scenes of it all I was like what what we can actually talk to people in real time and I got so excited And so I've just been kind of like trying to figure it out ever since So thank you guys so much for joining us today And I will leave links in the notes below like on whatever platform you joined on how to get in touch with brook And then also how to get that checklist that that we saw there at the end Just in case you are selling your home that you go through that checklist prior to the hiring Any independent contractors or even the cleaning company and before you get in touch with the realtor to get the process going That way you can do as much as you possibly can hopefully save a little bit of money in the process All right, that's it for today, and I will see you guys next time. Thank you again brook. Thanks everybody. Thank you