Learn about Real Estate by one of the premier Real Estate Investors in New Jersey. Each week Joseph J. Zoppi will be talking about investing in real estate including buying and selling houses and apartments. Understand how the economy, the Fed and world events impact real estate and how to adjust to these dynamics.
Templar Real Estate Radio Show for September 5, 2020
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The following program was paid for by Templar Real Estate. The views and opinions expressed on this program are not necessarily those of the staff and management of WMTR. As always, it is advisable to consult a professional before making a major decision.
It’s time now for the Templar Real Estate Talk Show. Here’s your host for the program, Joseph J. Zoppi.
Joseph J. Zoppi:
Hello, welcome to the Templar Real Estate Talk Show. My name is Joseph J. Zoppi, a real estate investor, consumer advocate, author, and managing partner of Templar Real Estate Enterprises. You could reach us at templarcashforhouses.com. That is T-E-M-P-L-A-Rcashforhouses.com, that’s one word, or you could call us at 973-240-8593. Again, that’s 973-240-8593 and we could answer any questions you may have, or you could email us from our website and we could discuss any topics you want on the air if we have sufficient time.
My company is a real estate investment firm, we buy houses for cash, we purchase apartment buildings, we do joint ventures with other real estate investors, we loan money for rehabs and provide transactional or gap funding. We work with individuals that want to invest with us in single-family houses up to apartment buildings. We do not speculate and we’re very protective of our money and our investors’ money. I’m not a real estate agent, I have individuals on staff that are agents that will sell your house through the traditional Multiple Listing Service, but we’re not a brokerage.
The show is going to go over everything there is about real estate, those things that impact real estate, we’ll talk about our rehabs, some of our investments, what went well and what did not, and especially how we learned from them. We’ll talk about the economy, interest rates, we’ll discuss the trends in real estate market. Real estate is your biggest or one of your biggest investments, so it’s important that you know as much as possible about that.
This show is going to discuss things about real estate. It’s based on my opinion and my experiences. Again, I ask everyone to always do their due diligence and do their research. It’s important, as I preach every week, to look at things from a balanced approach, ask people that have had experiences with it, make sure you ask good questions. As I said last week, sometimes, you could take a referral but it’s not always a good referral. You gotta ask good questions.
I was selling a house this week and the husband came into the house and was walking around, and he said, “My wife’s out in the car with the baby, so I’m going to go in first and then she’s going to come in second.” I said, “Great.” So he walked around, he was there for, I don’t know, a good five, six, seven minutes, something like that, it was pretty quick, and he went around, looked at everything, and then he went outside and his wife came in, and she was the one, she was very meticulous, she opened up every cabinet door, she opened up every appliance to look at it, in terms of microwave, the stove, but she was very meticulous, even with the water heater, she looked at how old it was. I was very impressed by her detail, but again, unfortunately, sometimes, a lot of guys look at things from a very cursory perspective and it’s the woman that really looks at the details associated with it, and when you’re looking for services of any type, you gotta ask good questions. We always encourage that with our company to ask questions and do your research. We always try to back it up by what’s on the Internet that’s supportable, and the one good thing about the Internet is there’s a lot of information out there and the one bad thing about the Internet is there’s a lot of information out there.
I’d like to also say hi to one of my listeners. Her name is Paulette, so hi, Paulette. She has called numerous times, she has recommended our company a number of times. Unfortunately, we couldn’t make a deal or they didn’t call back, any of their recommendations, but if we land a deal, of course, like I always say, she will get paid for it. It’s a finder’s fee, we always love doing that. We always encourage our listeners and our followers to do that and we’d be more than happy to pay a nice finder’s fee, so if anybody is out there and they know of anyone, confidential – we always keep everything confidential, and it’s a house that needs to be sold or anything like that, apartment buildings, we are definitely looking for apartment buildings. Preferably, very large ones, but with that being said, we will look at smaller ones also. We prefer anything above 200 units and we will do smaller ones. We’ve done 20 and 30 units, and we’ve done even smaller, 10 units, so we are always hungry for that, so please give us a call on it and we’d love to purchase it.
We also sold two houses this past week and received the proceeds, so we have given back our money that was loaned to us from our private investors, so thanks, Carol. Thanks, Cindy, John, and Dr. V for your investments and we are waiting to do some more deals.
Question, if anybody ever needs anything, please give us a call, in terms of real estate, any questions they may have, it doesn’t matter, we are here to support you, help you out, that’s a service we’d like to provide. We don’t charge for it. If you have any questions at all, we’d be more than happy to answer them. That’s something that is just near and dear to our mission to support people, especially if you’re having some challenges and you need to sell quickly, if you call us up and say, “Joe,” or any of our team members, “I need to sell my house fast,” we’ll be more than happy to jump on it. If you want to try to save your house, we’ll try to make suggestions as well. That’s very important to us. I always say, the house is your home, so that’s something that is just something so intrinsic and important to everyone, that they have a place where they could feel their home there and their comfort there, and we’re very big on that, in home preservation. That’s extremely important, but sometimes, unfortunately, it can’t be done, so we will be more than happy to purchase it or we’ll be happy to sell it through the traditional Multiple Listing Service. We have no problems with that at all.
So I’d like to talk to you about a couple things today. One of them was a deal that we had. I spoke about it last week, so we did a rehab for a house and it came out really nice, and we put all high-end finishes from quartz, we knocked down certain walls to make an open floor concept, so the house looks really nice and I said that one of the prospective buyers liked it a lot and she said to me she felt safe there. She was coming from New York and she said, “I have four kids, I’m a single mom, I just feel very safe here,” and that was really important to her and it was important to me that she could feel just by walking through that it was a good place for her, so this is the first time she had purchased the house, so she was very, very apprehensive. So with that being said, she had been working with this agent for close to a year, and I was a little upset with him initially because he had set up an appointment and it was like one night around like, 6:30, and I was in the area so I said I’ll show the house with him, and he was 50 minutes late, so I texted him and said, “What’s the status?” Then he said, “Whoops, I forgot to tell you that it was canceled,” and I was a little miffed on that, and it was lack of professionalism. We all sometimes forget stuff but she was coming from New York, so it takes a solid half an hour, so it was around rush hour, a little past eight, so it was close to at least half an hour and he didn’t notify me at all, so I texted him on and I said I was upset that I was waiting around and he apologized, but it was like, “Well, it happens and people cancel,” and the issue wasn’t the cancellation, I had no problem with that. It happens, the issue is that he never notified me and I was waiting around, that was the issue, so he had one strike against me and I basically said this last week.
So after we went under contract, we had an inspection and he was late for the inspection, and everybody else was there, I was there waiting for the inspector, the buyer, she was there, so everybody was there except for him, so he comes in 15 minutes late, so I left and just said lock up and he said, “Yeah, no problem.” So I get to the house a day later and the door is open, not unlocked, open, so I had to text him on that saying that “You left the door open,” and he apologized for that. So then, the inspection report came back and there was a lot of just minor issues and they weren’t really issues, they were just things that we missed or that we didn’t really care about as much, and no house is going to be perfect, no house will be perfect, and we also leave a few things that we want to make sure the inspector catches because if I fixed everything, they’re going to find really stupid stuff to tag me on because they have to list out some stuff and they always list out like 30 different things that are wrong.
So she saw the report and she never saw a report before, so she thought it was going to be a perfect report because everything was brand-new, but it wasn’t and it never will be. It’s an older house, so no matter what we do to it, it will not be perfect, and even new houses, there’s always issues, so she got spooked and she decided to cancel the deal, and part of it, I attribute to the agent because the agent did not manage her expectations initially. She was very apprehensive and I could see it, and when I heard certain things after the inspection from the agent, I was very concerned because like I said, she was just very apprehensive, she was upset because there was no overhead light into the bedrooms, and that’s the way the house was, and we didn’t run additional electric to put overhead lights, but there was a wall switch that could turn on a light when you have it plugged into the wall outlet, so there was no issue with that but she was apprehensive because of that.
So I’ll continue with this story. We are closing up on the segment, so again, if you have to reach us, you could call us at 973-240-8593 or you go to templarcashforhouses.com. I’ll be back in a couple of minutes. Thanks, bye.
Joseph J. Zoppi:
Hello, welcome back to the Templar Real Estate Talk Show. My name is Joseph J. Zoppi, managing partner of Templar Real Estate Enterprises. You could reach us at 973-240-8593 or templarcashforhouses.com.
So as I was saying before, we had a contract that was canceled and in a way, I was glad that it was canceled and in a way, I was not. So the buyer, she was very apprehensive, so I think it was going to be a tough go-round with that. I wish it wasn’t like that because I think the house would’ve been perfect for her, but again, she was new to this and the agent really didn’t help her much in terms of setting expectations for her to truly understand the inspection process and the issues that will come up in an inspection. Like I said, it was a really clean inspection, there were some minor issues here and there. We had a lightbulb that wasn’t put in for the front light, so they said that the light didn’t work. Well, I guess it’s technically true, there wasn’t a lightbulb in it. So there were a lot of little minor things and then relatively speaking, there wasn’t a lot. So we put it back on the market and one of the issues we always have and we worry about is if we go in and turn a review and then after an inspection or really more so, a person cannot get a loan, we have to put it back on the market, so as a result of that, those indicators that say it was pending, and then it comes off and you see that on Zillow and you look at the history, people question it. People think always the worst thing, like what’s wrong with the house? Not, was the person not able to get a loan? So we’re always very conscious of that and we’re always very concerned about that because it adds questions, and like I said, people always think the worst.
So we put it back on the market, we had another open house, we had a lot of people look at it, we always get very strong positive remarks from our work. When we do our work, we do it based on the wow factor, so people walk in and they say, “Wow, this looks nice,” and they are buying based on emotion, and as a result of that, we command usually a higher price, and we know we could because we have the finest finishes, and compared to our competition in the same price range, it just doesn’t compare. So as a result of it, we always garner more money. So after putting it on the market, back on the market, we had, like I said, a number of individuals coming to take a look, it was a lot, like 20 one day, and then we had some in the evening and the offers started coming in again, and while we had the open house, we had one family, they were a really nice family and they have a small little kid, they had another one on the way, and they were talking to my partner and they were very frustrated that every house that they picked, they were over bid on and they lost it, and they are afraid. They wanted to put a bid on this one but they were afraid that they were going to be overbid again, and she spoke to him, the wife and the husband, about when we sell a house and someone placed an offer, the number isn’t important but it’s also the people, and if we have a good connection with the people, we want them to be part of this house, we want them to purchase it, so it’s not always the price and it’s really the relationship and the connection we make, and that’s really, really important to us in everything that we do, and that’s for our house. Because now obviously, if we are selling a house for a client and it doesn’t work that way, it’s really more than just the dollars, and it should be that way, but sometimes, they’ll have a connection too. If they have multiple offers, they might pick the individual that they like better, so it’s just a natural thing that happens, but we had this connection, so it’s very important to us, and we want all our potential buyers to succeed. It’s a great experience that we could provide these types of houses and people are excited to purchase them.
But with that being said, they were very anxious, and we told them, and my partner told them, “Put an offer in and let’s see where it goes from there.” And we are not going to, if there is a bidding war, we are really for the most part, we will just take asking. Really, sometimes, we go above asking if there is a bidding war but we don’t like to go too far above it because we want to close the deal and it might not appraise for that full amount, so it really doesn’t matter. So we look at things very prudently, so with that being said, they contacted us and they wanted to forgo an inspection. We weren’t sure why. They said, “Well, we don’t need the inspection,” and the agent was saying the same thing and we’re saying, “Well, why don’t you want an inspection?” We just didn’t understand why and then they said, “Well, we might do the inspection,” so we went back-and-forth and we said, “It’s good that you have an inspection,” and we stand by our product and he was going back-and-forth on that, and then the agent contacted us and said, “Well, we are going to give you full asking. Maybe we’ll give even more than full asking,” and we said, “You don’t have to do that.” So she’s talking about that, she’s talking about no inspection. We are saying, “I think you need it, you should use an inspection just so you do it anyway.” So they came back with an offer, so originally, we are listing it at $529,000 and she was originally talking about doing over $529,000 and then no inspection, and so we get the offer, it’s at $510,000 with an inspection, so we were scratching our heads on that, and then after that, we said, “Well, we can’t do $510,000,” and they came back and then they offered us full asking again. We said okay on that, and then they asked for a couple of other concessions and we said fine with it. We really didn’t care, and then she went back again and she wanted to change the concessions, so it was going back-and-forth, then she asked about the previous inspection report of the agent and we said, “Well, it’s an old report. We remodeled this entire house. It’s not worth anything.” We knocked down walls, we did the outlets, we ripped out the kitchen, we removed walls in the basement. It’s a total change: new furnace, new AC, so everything is brand-new. She didn’t understand that at all. Also for even just asking that question because we explained to her everything was redone, so the agent wasn’t catching this or didn’t understand it. It was really kind of bizarre, so after that, then they called the next day after we were going to take it and then they said they can’t do it or they weren’t sure they were going to do it, and we are saying, “Well, what’s the apprehension now?” They said, “Well, we really can’t afford that $529,000. We could only afford $500,000.” So we are like, “Well, why did you present that?” and the agent did not control it at all with this and we just canceled it before we even went into attorney review because of that, and we were very apprehensive because we didn’t know if they were going to back out. They couldn’t afford it, it was just a mess.
So a day later, we got two more offers and one of them was above asking. It was like, $5,000 above asking, so we took it and even the backup offer that we had, the agent was good with that, the agent stated to their clients, “Let’s not do it real low and then we are going to go back-and-forth.” It just doesn’t work out that way, so they give us a very solid offer and originally, we were going to take it. We asked for maybe $5,000 more, so it was more like $521,000, and then this other couple came in, loved the house, and gave $5,000 over asking, but with that being said, we were concerned about the appraisal. So we didn’t know if it was going to appraise for what it needed to be . The houses have gone up in price considerably over the last X amount of months, but still, with that being said, we couldn’t make a break.
So one of the contingencies we’ve requested within the contract is that the first thing they do is not an inspection because we knew an inspection would go well, and they had a pretty good confident level with that but an appraisal done immediately and the one agent said, “We’ve never had it like that before.” We said, “Yeah, but we look at things a lot different than other agents and we look at the situation at hand, so we want to know immediately if it’s going to appraise and if not, whatever concessions are going to be instead of doing an inspection, giving concessions, then doing an appraisal and giving more concessions because we want to close this and we know we might have a challenge with the appraisal, and we might have to reduce it or give the money for closing costs or something. We feel that’s going to happen no matter what, but we’ll see, but we want to make sure that we look at the deal in its entirety and not just you have to go from A to B, to C. You don’t have to go from attorney review to inspections, to appraisal. So we turned it upside down because that was the best solution for us to ensure we were successful. I do not want to put this under pending status and then all of a sudden, I got to take it off because something goes sideways, and then it’s back on the market again. It’s not going to look good at all, and that’s something that a number of agents don’t understand and they’re not looking at the big picture. They are looking at the small thing that you have to do an inspection first and then you have to do the next level and when we look at things, we look at things very strategically either for us or for our clients, and that’s how we protect them and we protect also ourselves, so we are not going in if you want the average person or average agent, or average investment company. That’s not us. We look at things very, very strategically.
I used to work for an IT consulting form, I had a staff of approximately 90 individuals and we were doing very large complex projects and contracts, and we were always very creative with it. We weren’t just doing just black-and-white types of contracts, so we are always thinking of the creative way to do it and that’s what we do here at Templar. Everything we do from our investments to the purchase of properties, to the selling of properties, we look at it very strategically for our clients.
So I got to close out right now, thank you very much for everything. Have a nice weekend and God bless.
The preceding program was paid for by Templar Real Estate. The views and opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the staff and management of WMTR. As always, it is advisable to consult a professional before making a major decision.
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