Episode 24
Download MP300;00;00;11 - 00;00;12;26
Unknown
Episode with Neil Bender. How are you doing, Neil? Hey, I'm doing great. What episode is this? This is episode 24. Episode 24. All right. How excited are you to be in here? I'm super excited, man. I can't tell you how excited I am.
00;00;30;06 - 00;00;36;27
Unknown
We've known each other for a long time now. It's been a minute. Yeah. So. 040404.
00;00;36;27 - 00;00;56;04
Unknown
I owned a real estate company called Real Estate USA is Gig Harbor. Yup, Yup. Right by the KFC. And that oil change place? Yep, yep, yep. How did you find me? So I found you through Paul Berg. So I had just gotten out of school at WSU and went down to California and was working down there and decided I wanted to go to law school.
00;00;56;05 - 00;01;11;05
Unknown
Came up, was hanging out with Paul, who's my dad's first cousin, and he said, You should try real estate. Yeah. I said, Okay. And a month later, I had my license, and a month after that I sold my first house. And so he was the one that got me to Real Estate USA. And then we met there, like the first day.
00;01;11;13 - 00;01;29;27
Unknown
I think maybe the first day. Yeah. Real close. Yeah. So that's when it was a race to pick up the phone and fax machines and all kind of stuff. Yeah, our fun little office on point was, like, there. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Good location. Great location. We want to walk ups. No, we didn't have walk ups. We had some interesting people we worked with, though.
00;01;29;29 - 00;01;42;22
Unknown
Yeah, we had several interesting people that we worked with that was great. Like I said, a raced to pick up the phone because it would somebody would pick it up on that first half ring. And we had oh, there was probably at least a dozen of us in there. Yeah, most of those guys are retired now, I think.
00;01;42;24 - 00;02;01;02
Unknown
Who's your favorite tugboat, Willie? I knew you're gonna say that. Yeah, Tugboat. Willie was great. He had a picture of every house had ever sold in his little office, and it was just covered wall to wall. Yeah, He was always on the phone and hard working guy, and. Yeah, looked up to him a lot. You kept in touch with him for a long time, didn't you?
00;02;01;03 - 00;02;15;22
Unknown
Yeah, we did. For a really long time. Lost touch. I'm not sure where he is now. Last time he was, he retired to Alaska and was up on the Kenai Peninsula, and I think that's where he was originally from. So I like to think he's on a tugboat somewhere living it up. Yeah. How about your brother, the lawn doctor?
00;02;15;24 - 00;02;34;14
Unknown
Oh, the lawn doctor. Dr. Lon. Carl. Carl Skaggs. Carl Ski. Yeah. Carl. Gag. You know Paul called him Carl Skaggs. Of course he did. Carl's doing good. I keep up with Carl, too, and I worked with him at a couple of different offices. So he worked at Real Estate USA and then at Action Real Estate? Yeah. And then Carl went down to Arizona.
00;02;34;14 - 00;02;51;04
Unknown
Well, no, he went down to go fracking. He went, he went fracking like in, wasn't it. Like North Dakota or South Dakota or something in North Dakota. Yeah. He was driving a truck. He was driving a truck when everything kind of fell apart or whatever that they were paying. Huge. So he was. Yeah. San Joe and really cool stories coming out of there.
00;02;51;04 - 00;03;12;10
Unknown
But yeah, a lot of work. Yeah. Love it. So let's dive into some real estate. Yeah, let's get right to it. Tell me, what are some of the most common mistakes that buyers and sellers make during the real estate process, and how can they be avoided? Sure. Let's start with with sellers. I think the biggest mistake sellers make is is not pricing it correctly.
00;03;12;17 - 00;03;28;29
Unknown
You know, we can put a light that you can see from space on it, but if it's not in the price range, it's not going to work With a difficult market. You got to be ready to negotiate a little bit. And so I think sellers are still coming in a little bit too headstrong as far as what things are worth and what buyers are willing to pay for them.
00;03;28;29 - 00;03;47;09
Unknown
And as a result, we're seeing some longer stays on market for buyers. I think the biggest mistake you could do is not working with the correct lender and working with someone that isn't familiar with the area. And so you can't call an agent that that's out of town and be able to expect them to have the expert local knowledge that you need.
00;03;47;09 - 00;04;05;04
Unknown
So I think that real estate is becoming more hyper localized and that it's important that buyers not only working with the right finance people, but also are able to come to work with the right agent that knows the area super well. So you and I have done a lot of transactions together. Yeah. Too many to count. Yeah, too many to count.
00;04;05;06 - 00;04;23;16
Unknown
What would you say the most important thing when a buyer comes to you and says, I am looking for a lender, what's the most important thing to you? Talking to them about a lender? You know, just that they need to find the best deal and the best communication, depending on the loan program they're going forward, depending on, you know, if this is their first rodeo or not.
00;04;23;18 - 00;04;52;24
Unknown
It's important to have lots and lots of information and also be getting the best rate. Yeah, well, I've moved around companies a lot and we're of landed now we have some of the best rates around. So you know I, I encourage people now to shop for rates. Yeah not all lenders are the same and really I think having a relationship between the lender and the real estate agent is huge for for buyers.
00;04;52;27 - 00;05;10;08
Unknown
Absolutely. Yeah. No, I think that's important just from a communication standpoint. I just did one that was new construction. They use the in-house lender and it was a nightmare. You know, it was wrong. Had to get it corrected two or three times. There was a rate by down. And so it was a little bit more complicated than than a usual deal seller concession.
00;05;10;11 - 00;05;32;26
Unknown
Anyway, just getting all the numbers lined up and the communication. And because it was the the builders lender, which sometimes buyers are kind of forced to use the communication there was was tough. Yeah. Communication is key. Yeah. Like I love working with agents, I love working with you where we can communicate. You know, if I'm having a problem, I don't I'm not bashful to go to you and say, Hey, I've got this and you can help me resolve it also sometimes.
00;05;32;26 - 00;05;51;14
Unknown
Absolutely. You know, communication throughout the processes is so important. Absolutely. I think it's that's that's real critical and that's getting lost a little bit with texts and emails and that kind of stuff. So I like when people can personalize it a little bit and pick up the phone when something's wrong. It's easier to fix it like that than to go back and forth through several texts or emails, in my opinion.
00;05;51;14 - 00;06;16;26
Unknown
Yeah. So you're in a transaction. How do you how do you handle unexpected situations such as home inspections, revealing major issues and or, you know, let's say the buyer gets cold feet last minute. How do you handle that type of thing? You know, it really kind of depends on the situation for just kind of context there. If if something happens big during the home inspection, that's the time that you should be really questioning it.
00;06;16;26 - 00;06;31;19
Unknown
It's the longest that you have in the home before you purchase it. And so if there's something there bothering you, it's certainly going to bother the next guy and it's going to be something that has to be dealt with and so I try to get the seller to be able to cover those things, especially if they're deal breakers and sometimes deals don't come together.
00;06;31;19 - 00;06;51;16
Unknown
And so I've seen buyers walk at the last minute. Sometimes it's a familial thing. Somebody died, sometimes it's a job change or a divorce or for whatever reason, life kind of happens. You've had all these things. Yeah, all, all of those horrible things. Yeah. Unfortunately, you know, I mean, it happens. If you're in the business long enough, you're going to you're going to come across some really strange stuff.
00;06;51;17 - 00;07;09;21
Unknown
You're going to come across some really, really weird stuff. Yeah, I had someone leave a dog one time. Can I tell you that story? Really? Absolutely. The seller left a dog seller left a dog. So I'm still in a house in Olympia, and it's kind of like a barn, you know, kind of setting equestrian or whatever. And they have a list of the things they're going to leave with the home.
00;07;09;23 - 00;07;24;01
Unknown
And I'm looking at the list and it's like, number one, the riding lawnmower. Number two, the dog. Her name is Bella, number three. And I'm like, all right. They put it on the purchase contract, not on the purchase contract, but on just like the list of things we're leaving, you know, was the dog. And I called the other agent.
00;07;24;01 - 00;07;38;15
Unknown
I was like, So the the dog's coming with it. She's like, Yep, dogs coming with it. So like, have you ever negotiated the dog before? She's like, No, this is a first. I was like, Well, I'm not adopting a dog. She's like, We'll meet here, out. The buyers like it. And anyway, it worked out fine, but the buyers love the dog.
00;07;38;15 - 00;08;00;07
Unknown
Bella The dog is still alive and well in Olympia, running the fields and herding sheep. So that is hilarious. So it just stuff comes up that's weird sometimes. And so just try to roll with the punches a little bit. So that's a weird thing. What is one of the strangest or funniest things you've ever seen? Oh, the funniest thing I saw was was naked lawn mowing guy in Alala.
00;08;00;12 - 00;08;16;08
Unknown
Oh boy. This is back in Prey oh 710 So things were still kind of kind of hot. It made a little bit of a turn but stuff was still selling and you know, money was free and the rest of it or being given out pretty freely and there was a guy and he just didn't like his neighbor and he didn't want new neighbors.
00;08;16;08 - 00;08;41;03
Unknown
So every time we went over there, he he's naked on his lawnmower. And we were over there. He was not the seller. He was the neighbor. He was the neighbor who naked lawn mowing guy. That's a good one. It was it was They didn't end up buying the house ultimately. Yeah. Did close and so I'm not sure if you know how that worked out but that was the that was one of the funnier things that had seen and the fact that they kept going back, we're like, well, maybe it was just like, I don't know this every time.
00;08;41;05 - 00;08;59;10
Unknown
Hopefully he liked the new neighbors that moved in. Hopefully or hopefully they just, you know, put up a fence or got used to it or some big old whatever. Privacy trees will do weird stuff. Yeah. Yeah. People do weird stuff. Absolutely. How do you approach working with first time home buyers and what advice do you give them to help navigate the process?
00;08;59;13 - 00;09;22;07
Unknown
First time homebuyers are special, especially right now, because because things are crazy, interest rates are high. And so if they're in the market, the first thing I do is say, Good for you. Yeah, you guys are going to buy in this market. You're committed to the area. I think it's it's never a bad time to buy. But with the first time homebuyers, I just try to douse them with information without being to overwhelming.
00;09;22;14 - 00;09;36;28
Unknown
Yeah. I try to explain to them stuff that can come up turns in the road. This new construction was a that I was talking about previously was a was a first time homebuyer and they went into several homes. The new construction kind of spoke to them, but I talked to them about how that was going to be different.
00;09;36;28 - 00;09;57;15
Unknown
And, you know, it ended up being that communication upfront really helped at the end because when they kept saying no about stuff and then I was able to fix certain things and unable to fix other things, that communication was right up front. And then the other thing I really like working with first time homebuyers because they get to use an FHA program or USDA or something that's a low down.
00;09;57;15 - 00;10;14;07
Unknown
You only get to do that a couple of times, right? That's a cool thing. FHA You can you can use multiple times. You just can't have two FHA loans at the same time unless you're moving away. There is some nuances to that. It's it's kind of a pain to get around, but you can do that. Okay. And the VA, you can you can use that eligibility over and over and over again.
00;10;14;10 - 00;10;31;11
Unknown
You can have more than one VA loan, right? You can, depending on on how much eligibility is used, you can use it again to buy a second home. And in fact, even if the eligibility doesn't cover the whole 100%, they have to bring in some. But there's a matrix that we plug in and they can use that again.
00;10;31;13 - 00;10;46;00
Unknown
Gotcha. Yeah. Yeah. For the military guys, you know, and gals, it's, it's, it's one of those where if you're only going to be here for a couple of years, it's it's hard to really time that you know but if you're going to be here you're going to retire here you have family here. This is a great place to set down roots.
00;10;46;00 - 00;11;01;16
Unknown
And, you know, like we've seen over the years, you have so many people that are like they've been all over the world, but they come here to retire. They do. Yeah, they do. And it's a beautiful thing. Yeah. How do you stay in touch with your clients after closing in touch with clients After closing, they get a Christmas card and a single year.
00;11;01;16 - 00;11;16;20
Unknown
Yeah. And so I try to make a big deal out of that, and then I try to keep it in loose communication for at least a couple of months after I make sure that that handoff is good. And, you know, I'm not going to call you every month. You know, it's just it's just one of those that, you know, three kids busy.
00;11;16;20 - 00;11;31;07
Unknown
You know, the rest of it. And I love my job. And if you want to call me, I'm around anytime. But yeah, that's probably something that that I need to work on a little bit is is is calling those people, especially the ones that really get along super well. Yeah. So you've been in the business for 20 years.
00;11;31;07 - 00;11;48;19
Unknown
How do you stay motivated and passionate about what you do? The kids and the wife help? Yeah, yeah. That's number one motivator and makes it makes it easy to get out and go do it. Real proud of them and real proud of what, what, what they're doing in life. And so I'm trying to be as supportive of that as I can.
00;11;48;21 - 00;12;06;25
Unknown
Other than that, the energy of it, you know, there's peaks and valleys and there's days that are that are tough, but there's days that are really great, too. And I like the freedom of the job. Yeah. So flexibility is great. Yeah. And after this long, you know, I was I was nerve wracking about it at first. And I was younger and didn't have some of the overhead that I have now.
00;12;06;25 - 00;12;25;14
Unknown
But it all seems to work out year after year. So I just try to keep doing what I do and keep up with people as best I can and try to work hard. Is a curveball for you? Yeah. If you had an ideal client, who would you work with? Oh boy, that's a tough one. I know you do a lot of stuff.
00;12;25;19 - 00;12;49;00
Unknown
I mean, over the years you've done a lot of land. Yeah. You list for builders? Yeah. You've worked with a ton of first time homebuyers. Yeah, You've worked with a ton of people that are in the military and also veterans. Sure, sure. Do you have a specific client that that if you had to work with one specific type of client from here until forever, who would it be?
00;12;49;02 - 00;13;12;10
Unknown
You know, I. I really have a passion for waterfront properties. Yeah, I think they're unique and rare and the way that they've increased in equity and all the nuances that go into, well, what's the bulkhead like, What's the hillside like? What's the setbacks look like? What are the neighbors like? How is the dry? You know, there's all these things that factor into waterfront that's different than other types of real estate.
00;13;12;17 - 00;13;27;11
Unknown
And so I think that's where my heart is. And I love being on the water. So if I had a perfect world, then yeah, I'd show Waterfront on the Puget Sound every day. That's a great answer. In in your answer, you said that there's so many things extra to look at on waterfront that people just don't don't realize.
00;13;27;11 - 00;13;49;22
Unknown
Yeah. You know, bulkhead is is a huge one. And what do you know about that personally? Well, I know that they can fail. And I've seen them several times at waterfront. One of those things it's a risk. Yeah. So if you want something simple, then, you know, get something buried in a hillside that's got a nice view or get something on a golf course or get something on a big piece in the woods.
00;13;49;22 - 00;14;08;11
Unknown
But but living on the water has its risks. And I think risk reward there is is worth it. But there's several things to look out for. Yeah, Yeah. I know that you and I have spent some time on the water together and I look forward to spending a lot more time on the water. With you in Waterfront for me is one of my absolute ultimate goals.
00;14;08;11 - 00;14;25;16
Unknown
I want to be on the water. Yeah, Yeah, It's just. It's a it's a beautiful thing. And it's not one of those things that's widely available. And again, because of its rarity, I really feel like those types of properties are going to build in, say, an equity in, in the next, in the next coming years. Yeah. And we are lucky to live in such a beautiful area.
00;14;25;16 - 00;14;44;17
Unknown
You know, the Gig Harbor areas, absolutely gorgeous And to think that body of water we can get from our backyard to literally anywhere in the world. Yeah, that is waterfront. That isn't a lake. It's pretty incredible. It's it's really cool. Yeah. And the way that it it filters in and out and all the animals that come in and out.
00;14;44;17 - 00;14;57;10
Unknown
Yeah, we saw that dolphin that one time and that was jumping in the wake. That was so cool. Yeah. And it was a great dolphin, right? Yeah. That shouldn't have been there or it was weird that it was there. I've only seen it twice, you know, But it played with the boat for like, half hour. Yeah, it was really cool.
00;14;57;10 - 00;15;15;08
Unknown
Yeah. And we've seen whales. I mean, we have gray whales, the killer whales coming down here and there. I've only been fortunate to see them once. I know they're here all the time and I try to locate them and find them. And this summer it's going to happen. It is going to happen. We'll get that figured out for sure.
00;15;15;08 - 00;15;41;23
Unknown
Crime And I went up to San Juan twice with James and nothing. I never saw. The damn orcas just pissed me off this summer. We're going to make it happen. All right. Done. Well, Neil, thank you for coming on. Yeah, anytime. I appreciate it. And, yeah, anytime that. That you want me to come back, that'd be great. Is there anything else you'd like to add in in the real estate world that's, you know, maybe current events or anything?
00;15;41;25 - 00;15;56;27
Unknown
Well, I'll tell you, I can't stop thinking about this roundtable pizza that we're going to go. Yes, we're going to go all you can eat Roundtable pizza. And we're going to listen to 94.1. They had the desert pizza, right? They have the desert pizza for sure. Doesn't include the salad bar, but it does include the desert pizza. What's 94.1?
00;15;56;27 - 00;16;11;03
Unknown
94.1 is a radio station that everybody should be listening to right now. It's great. It's not my speed, whatever my might say. I think it used to be a country station. And so, okay, I don't know how old it is, but a friend of mine turned on to it and I can't I can't turn it off. Oh, boy.
00;16;11;03 - 00;16;30;14
Unknown
Something new. So if you're looking for a jam, 94.1, it's the way to go. I love it. Well, again, thanks for coming in. I appreciate it. We will definitely have you on. And if you need a great real estate agent, Neal Bender, he is the man. He is. He lives in Gig Harbor but does all over Pierce County.
00;16;30;16 - 00;16;41;27
Unknown
Thurston County. Kitsap County. He'll go where you are. I know all those places. So. Yes, absolutely. Please give me a call. Thanks for joining. All right. Thanks. But another great day.
