Listing A Home With Realtor Stacey Franklin

Stacey Franklin of Pinnacle Estate Properties Encino joins me to discuss Pre-Listing inspections. Stacey has been with Pinnacle Estate Properties Encino for 18 years, Stacey has also been In the Platinum Club for the last 5 years and in the top 15% of sales company wide. 

Stacey shares some great insight to help you prepare top sell your home. Take the proactive approach and get ahead of any potential deal killer surprises with potential buyer by scheduling a pre listing home and sewer camera inspection.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/staceyfranklin_realestate/?hl=en

Here is the link to Youtube Mold video Stacey mentioned:
https://youtu.be/6UuB1YGWr-s

You can watch The Youtube Video Versions Of This Podcast By Clicking Links Below.
https://youtu.be/RgTef6htkbo
https://youtu.be/HSWBLqJEZaE
https://youtu.be/BMOM-qFoPs4
https://youtu.be/1D2NFU2OCWA
https://youtu.be/S0TASx4AJPo
https://youtu.be/zCO_Z3-cXYI

Transcript

John Laforme: 0:00

Buying a home. Don't panic. Just listen to the rest of this podcast Alright everybody, welcome back to another episode of Home Inspection authority's Straight Talk podcast with me, John laforme. I'm a CREIA certified home inspector from Los Angeles, California. And the topics we discuss on this podcast are about buying homes selling homes, inspecting homes. So if you're a home inspector, home buyer, real estate professional, this podcast is definitely for you. Alrighty, buddy, I am sitting here with Stacey Franklin from Pinnacle estate properties in Encino. What's going on?

Stacey Franklin: 0:48

Good morning, John laforme. How are you? Good. How are you?

John Laforme: 0:53

You remembered my name?

Stacey Franklin: 0:54

I did? Oh Yeah.

John Laforme: 0:57

So you know you and I've been working on some properties together for a couple years now we go way back. Yes. And, and you know, today I want to go over. But first of all, I gotta ask you what, what's up with all these awards? I keep seeing you getting every time I turn a turn on like Facebook or something. I'm seeing you getting awards. Why are you getting so many awards?

Stacey Franklin: 1:20

Well, Pinnacle estate properties where I work I've been there for I would say about 18 years. I don't know my the Encino office has been open that long but that's I've been there since they've been open. And, and they motivate their agents by honoring them when they have over a million dollars in sales a month or multiple sales per month. So every time I have multiple sales, multiple listings or sales over a million dollars, I get an award, which is great, because it's good for it's good to be able to post on my social media for the my buyers and sellers or or, you know, family and friends to see that I actually work

John Laforme: 2:03

that I leave the house. I'm actually earning something. Yeah.

Stacey Franklin: 2:07

And, and so that's one of the benefits of working where I work.

John Laforme: 2:11

That's good. That's a good. That's a good model to have inside the company to promote. And you know, show people they're appreciated. Yeah, it's very incentivizing. Yeah. So yeah, I'm really I'm really a fan of that. I think that's cool. And any business owner does that. Because a lot of them don't.

Stacey Franklin: 2:29

Yeah, a lot of them don't. And I love where I work. Yeah.

John Laforme: 2:32

So you guys have a lot of realtors. They're like a swarm of them or just a small amount.

Stacey Franklin: 2:37

I don't know how many agents we have. But I believe now we have. Sorry. I think we have seven to nine offices. We just opened a new window in Porter Ranch.

John Laforme: 2:52

Okay, so the one office urine. I mean, how many people are in there?

Stacey Franklin: 2:56

I'm not sure actually. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, there's there are a lot of

John Laforme: 3:00

Pinnacles been around for a long time. Yeah. Yeah, that's, that's correct. So I want to I got a lot of questions for you today. And this is gonna be regarding sellers. Having them usually I'm talking about buyers. Today, we're gonna talk about sellers. And I'm kind of piggybacking this episode on the one I did recently with working RV magazine. They just did a little article on dealing with a slowing market. And that's going to affect everybody, it's going to affect you, it's going to affect me, it's going to be affected appraisers, it's going to it's going to affect anybody else involved. Termite guys, all the inspectors are out, we're all going to get affected. So it was kind of talking about how to deal with it, you know. So this brings up the point of pre listing inspections, and the importance of them. I've been pushing pre listing inspections for years. Most people don't move forward with that. And the past couple of years, I get it, because it's been a crazy seller's market. And it's been like, nobody wants to do an inspection. They just want the house. Everybody was in a frenzy. Right.

Stacey Franklin: 4:11

I mean, you know, during that that seller's market, when you have as many buyers that we've had with such a little inventory, they're more willing to not ask for anything. So it doesn't matter what condition the property is in. Whether it's a fixer, whether it's it's set up and ready to go. Whether it needs a new roof or a new panel are all the things you know, people just wanted to get into a house.

John Laforme: 4:40

I know. Do you have any idea why that was? To me? It's still mind blowing. I'm thinking like, did they have to move to this street was or was there inlaws living next door? I mean, what was the reason for the for the scramble it was nuts.

Stacey Franklin: 4:53

It was crazy. It was crazy. I think they the lack of inventory With low interest rates with a combination of low interest rates, I think people were just like, let's take advantage of of the market now. And

John Laforme: 5:10

you nailed it with a low interest rate. That was the I think that was the main driver behind that crazy.

Stacey Franklin: 5:15

I don't know, if if buyers were afraid that they would never get into a house. I mean, we've had this threat looming over us of, of interest rates rising for, like eight or nine years. Yeah. So I mean, and now we're seeing the interest rates shoot up in a way that, you know, only our parents saw, right. So my parents when I was growing up, but and even me when I went when I bought my first house, I had a 12% interest rate. So yeah, it was intense. I didn't know

John Laforme: 5:48

what that high 12% luck. I mean, did you have bad credit or so

Stacey Franklin: 5:55

I was young, I had bad credit. I fixed it over time. But you know that interest rates were still already high,

John Laforme: 6:02

but you go what you want to? I did you got in, you dealt with it, you're probably making good money. So it was like, okay, no worries. Right. Exactly. Right. So now it's now it's now that we're at like, 7% on the interest rate. 7.60 went that high? Yeah. Well, that was only like a week ago, seven.

Stacey Franklin: 6:18

I mean, look, there's so many programs right now where you can buy down the interest rate for either the 30 year fixed or a temporary timeframe, they have the the two one and the three one buy down? Yep. Right now, where, you know, you can buy the rate down to even 315 down that I have a lender that provides, can you can buy the rate down to 3.6%. But it's temporary. So it's, you know, you have to be if you're going to do that you have to know the risks that you're taking, you know, because if the market changes in three years, and you can't refi and the market does drop there, you know, you see it, you'll see a rise in foreclosures again, the market will drop, right? Yeah, you can't you can't educate your client. Yeah, you can't get into a loan that you can't refinance. Right? That's don't don't don't sign that loan. Yeah, that's a bad one.

John Laforme: 7:06

That's a really bad one.

Stacey Franklin: 7:07

I mean, if somebody has a substantial income, and it's, you know, you're you're working in a field that's not going to drop out from under you, and you know, the risks and you're educated. That's one thing, but, you know, to sell it to a client that that is kind of, it doesn't really know anything about buying, which is most homebuyers, which is most home buy, right. I try and educate my clients as best as possible. But most of the time, they only remember what's happening during the process. Right? And then everything just, you know, goes away, doesn't go away for us. Right. It goes away for them.

John Laforme: 7:42

Yeah, that's, that's unfortunate. But yeah, that's how it is, man. The high interest rates also come with another problem. And that is you may have qualified for 800 grand. And then the rate just goes up and a week later before you find that house and all of a suddenly you're out. You can't even qualify anymore. Unless you go down on price.

Stacey Franklin: 8:01

I'm dealing with that right now with buyers with my buyers. Yeah.

John Laforme: 8:04

Yeah. So it's it's how can I word that it's kind of like a cluster something?

Stacey Franklin: 8:15

We're not a lot of swear on here. Are we? Oh, yeah, it's clusterfuck. Okay, we have to remain professional.

John Laforme: 8:20

It's a clusterfuck, folks. So hang on tight.

Stacey Franklin: 8:23

He's gonna go anybody who knows me knows that. My, my favorite word is the F word. But I'm gonna stay tame today.

John Laforme: 8:30

Yes. You can use it as much as it falls out of your mouth. Thank you. Alright, so Oh, congrats on all your awards. By the way. I just wanted to bring that up because I'm like, I don't see too many other relatives as many awards as you get you get you get you get rewarded a lot. Thank you.

Stacey Franklin: 8:49

I do and I'm grateful to be able to work with with people who who do, right.

John Laforme: 8:55

And if somebody listening wants to hire you as a realtor, how would they find you?

Stacey Franklin: 9:00

They can find me on my website Stacey Franklin realestate.com. Okay, or you can find me on Instagram and message me I'm at Stacey Franklin underscore real estate. And that's the handle. Okay. Yeah. I'm

John Laforme: 9:14

Stacy is S T A cey right. Yes. Okay, because sometimes other girls spell spelt differently.

Stacey Franklin: 9:20

I know. They spell it wrong.

John Laforme: 9:22

Probably intentionally, except for my best friend's their parents were CC weed when I started.

Stacey Franklin: 9:27

Yeah, she's sta CI. And so I'll totally I'm okay with that. Yeah.

John Laforme: 9:33

So have you been in this position before? In a slowing market as a realtor? Have you have you been Have you actually experienced it in the past?

Stacey Franklin: 9:43

I have. I was actually licensed in working during the last crash in 2008. Yeah. 2008 And that was a rough time. I was pretty new in real estate. And, and didn't I was young I didn't know anything. I thought I knew everything. I didn't know anything. And, and I, pretty much I had a very slow career after that for I think a few years. And it took me a long time to bounce back because I didn't know much and I wasn't educated. And, and so I've been through it and it's wasn't easy. Right, right.

John Laforme: 10:23

So how, how do you find clients? How do you find listing listings?

Stacey Franklin: 10:33

So, I've been a referral based business for almost 20 years. The only marketing I do are to friends, family and past clients. I do open houses for other people, I do open houses for myself. And that's how I, I obtained business. I'm also very, I make friends easy. So, you know, I go to the gym, I, I go out a lot. And, and I just meet people, I don't ever try and push them push my business on anybody, including people who come in to open houses, I let you know, I allow for for things to happen naturally,

John Laforme: 11:13

it's a show of confidence on your end. That's good. I mean, you're not desperate,

Stacey Franklin: 11:17

I'm not desperate. And I also don't have the bandwidth that some other agents have to be able to do that mass marketing, and have, you know, 60 clients a month, I just don't have the bandwidth for that I like to pay special attention to the people that I'm working with. And anybody that I've worked with, can tell you that, that I spend a lot of time with them. And, and most of the time, if I'm not overwhelmed or overloaded, they, they feel like they're the only one that I'm working with.

John Laforme: 11:49

That's good. That's good. That's good to hear. So yeah, like, as you know, I'm the same way. I'm not a good salesman, I tell people that all the time. The call me be like, Well, sir, you know, your price is a little bit higher than this guy. Well, okay. And what do you want me to do with that? Well, you're not going to try to offer me? No, you asked me what I offer. I told you, and now you're trying to compare me to someone I don't know. So that means nothing to me. This is what I can do for you. I'm not here to offer discounts just for you ask just because you asked, right. I'm just not a good salesman, I lose probably a lot of jobs because of that, but I just don't care. I this is how I am. It's like someone else will call.

Stacey Franklin: 12:29

Right. And I'm about my, my thing is that the chemistry and the energy has to be there and the connection between me and my client, because if there's no connection there, and we have a lack of communication, that's when things kind of get hairy, and I don't, I don't like to work that way. I like to work that way. Because it's draining, and it's hard. And so and I don't have an assistant to take over and set you know, and fill fill in when I feel like I don't want to deal with that person anymore. So, so I like to work in a way where I want to deal with the person no matter how hard it gets, and get them to the end.

John Laforme: 13:07

Have you ever had a kick, kick a client loose?

Stacey Franklin: 13:09

I have had a few times too. And I've had clients kick me loose because that that's just not there. And I'm like, good luck.

John Laforme: 13:18

It's probably better. Yeah, good luck.

Stacey Franklin: 13:20

I am not made to work with everybody. And not everybody is made to work with me. So you know, there's an agent for everyone. And, and when you when you think come from a place of of lack, the abundance isn't there. So I know that you lose one game to actually one of my friends taught me to lose one game, I was really upset too, that I lost a client one time and I have a really close girlfriend who works with me at Pinnacle. And she said lose one game too. And she was right.

John Laforme: 13:52

We all have a problem with the same exact issue. And that is called humans. Humans are difficult.

Stacey Franklin: 14:00

So I lost him coming up,

John Laforme: 14:01

I go, I go through the same thing. You know, it's like, I want to work with everybody. But you just the connection is not there. You're on two different planes. Yeah, person wants this. And you're like, I don't do that. You know? So it's it's a constant struggle. Yeah. For anybody. I mean, any business doesn't matter what business you're in. It's just the same. It's the same shit everywhere in real estate

Stacey Franklin: 14:24

is hard. Yes, people who are spending that, you know, for most people, they're spending all of the money they have, or the money that they've saved their nest egg on this thing. And it's, you know, you get into the process. They're excited, and then they get nervous, and then they have the inspection and then they're scared and then they have to put the money into the bank and they have a panic attack. I mean, I deal with it every single time and I just explained it to a client on a house that you did an inspection for me on where the client started to kind of unravel and have a meltdown. And he said does this happened to everybody? And I said, Yes, it's normal. It does, you know, you're,

John Laforme: 15:05

you're not buying a brand new house. So you need to, you need to set expectations. It's really important for realtors to set clear expectations with their buyers, especially depending on the year of the house, the first thing you should be you as the realtor should to grasp on is the age of the house, when was that thing built. And then from there, you can kind of anticipate what is probably going to be found. That's why today we're going to talk about pre listing inspections and how important they are, for a lot of reasons, they're going to be more important now because the markets changing, buyers are going to be a lot more scrutinizing, hey, I want this fixed, I want that fixed, I want it done by a qualified electrician, I don't want a handyman doing it, they're going to start throwing orders around, which means the seller is no longer in control of the transaction. Because now they have a buyer who's hot to buy, but he wants all these fixes. Now I want to ask you about once a seller find you or you happen to be introduced him whatever, and they decided to go with you what is the first thing you have to do with them? Walk me through that.

Stacey Franklin: 16:12

So the first thing that I have to do with a seller first of all is to create the relationship and rapport and make sure that there's some trust there. So they know how I work. I've generally pull comps to see what's going on in the neighborhood, comparable sales and, and then take a look at their house so that I can compare the interior and exterior of their house to what I am seeing in photographs online. Which photos can be deceiving i really i i like to take really good photos. And if it's not a great house, most of the time the buyer walk will walk in and say this looks better in the pictures. So so you know you have to really be able to be able to see through the shiny. When you're looking at photos of comps.

John Laforme: 17:02

So quick real quick, I want to throw something at you that you just made me think of when you are doing and this goes for all realtors, you have to take good pictures of the garage. Oh, because us guys that are buying houses are looking at so a lot of us are looking at that garage size. Can we put our show cars in there? You know what I mean? We can we put our can we put stuff in there. A lot of people don't do that. And I'm like, that's a really big part of a house. The house has a two car garage. Can we see it?

Stacey Franklin: 17:32

Right? I you know, see, we're learning you I'm learning and 20 years in, I think I've taken a photo of maybe three garages.

John Laforme: 17:42

You got to put it in? Yeah, that's a big part of the house. Thanks. And some people really need their garage. And nowadays, people want to convert them to ad use, right? Another reason they need to know what they're looking at. And don't be shy about measuring the size of that garage and putting that in your listing too. Because people need to know that as well.

Stacey Franklin: 18:02

Can I measure it with my feet? Can you just Yeah, it's put your

John Laforme: 18:05

parchments typically like 19 by 20 or so my dad 18 by 20, something like that. Yeah. So yeah, just a tip for you. Because I recently just bought a house and I was always looking where's that garage yet? Is it attached? single car garage useless that's like a trash can place to put your trash cans useless.

Stacey Franklin: 18:27

You can't do anything with that. Well, congratulations.

John Laforme: 18:29

Oh, thank you. I'm waiting for that final call,

Stacey Franklin: 18:32

you're gonna get it today get my keys coming.

John Laforme: 18:36

So that was a tip. Go ahead, continue with what you're saying? No,

Stacey Franklin: 18:39

I don't remember what that was, oh,

John Laforme: 18:42

what we're talking about was what do you have to do when you get your seller?

Stacey Franklin: 18:47

Oh, so we go over the comps and, and over pricing. Right. So if we do that over the phone, before I see the house, I always let them know that there could be, you know, there could be a big price difference when it comes to what I am telling them and what they think they know. You know, what they think they know, right? And what I see and what my opinion is, in my opinion, is just an opinion, I can't guarantee that your house is going to sell for the top, bottom or middle price. And I can't guarantee that it's going to sell in in three days or in 33 days. So but so I always let them know that that up front and then I go and see the house. And you know, we always talk about like do we do agents? Did you take a look around? Right? Do you take a look around and do you? Do you look for items that are broken? That's where my eyes go. My eyes go to cracks in the wall. I go to the panel and see how small and old it is. I don't know anything really about the size of a panel but you can kind of if the panel is this big, you know that it's a small panel. It's a small panel. So and you can see See physical size you can physically see even with the cover on it, whether it's old or whether it's newer So, and in the way it's constructed, obviously, you can tell when it's a new panel, but I don't go into the house, but you know, I can why not? I don't have a suit. John, I'll let you borrow. And I'm sure you would, but no, thank you. Rabbits dripping. No, thank you. That's, that's for you. First of all, you get paid the big bucks. Yeah.

John Laforme: 20:29

First of all, the chance of you seeing a live rat is 1 million to one probably, you might see a few dead ones trapped. And

Stacey Franklin: 20:37

no, no, thanks. I can usually, I usually usually can tell if there's granule loss on a roof. So I can see whether a roof is old

John Laforme: 20:46

when I shiny from the ground and its composition shingle then is a problem.

Stacey Franklin: 20:50

And I can see wood rot. I mean, that's, that's where my my eyes go to those things. When I just go visit a friend, the check water heaters. I don't check water heaters. Do you want me to?

John Laforme: 21:04

Well, I'm just trying to help you out. So you can, you know, better prepare yourself for your listening. And like I said, I want to break that down a little do you look at the air conditioning? Okay, when you look at it, what are you looking at?

Stacey Franklin: 21:18

I'm looking for age.

John Laforme: 21:20

Okay, what if you can't see the unit that's in the attic? Then someone has to tell you wait, somebody has to tell ya. So instead of

Stacey Franklin: 21:29

what ask, they ask, and then I wait for most homeowners to come and take.

John Laforme: 21:35

I'm gonna give you the wrong information when you ask them how old their system is. Yeah, unless the guy is really savvy to it and he takes care of his house. If it's if it's a very clean house, chances are the owner is going to know what's going on because they obviously care about the house and they've kept it maintained. Typically that the guy in the family dad or the whoever it is, is typically going to be pretty savvy with that stuff. But if you walk into a house, it's just deferred maintenance everywhere. That means no one knows anything. Right? Nothing's been serviced. And

Stacey Franklin: 22:05

and when it when it had when it had been serviced in you know, 20 years prior. They always they always tell you that it's five years prior. Yeah. I did it about five years ago.

John Laforme: 22:20

It's always five years ago. How's it how old? Is it? Roof? Yeah, that's there's no labels on roofs? No, we just it's a best guess even for a pro roofer. That's best guess. So that's good stuff that you just mentioned there. You were looking at the house trying to check the major systems. And then what after that, then what he did, I asked some questions. If you find something old. What do you say to your seller?

Stacey Franklin: 22:44

Have you done any maintenance? On this item? Does it work? Are there any? Let's pretend like it's a panel? Is there anything that doesn't work? Have you had anything repaired? Do you have problems with your breakers? Do you have to flip your breakers all the time?

John Laforme: 23:01

The lights go dim when you turn the AC on?

Stacey Franklin: 23:04

Oh, I don't ask that question. Actually.

John Laforme: 23:08

On an old old house. Yeah, like the

Stacey Franklin: 23:11

seizure strobe light.

John Laforme: 23:15

I will look up to the lights go oh shit. Yeah. So all right, so And what about after that? So let's say you is the house like? Does it look like shit on the outside? Does it look like shit on the inside? If the person is kind of a borderline hoarder? What do you tell them to do? So what would you what's your best advice?

Stacey Franklin: 23:38

You see me like lead out? I am the hoarder whisperer.

John Laforme: 23:47

a hoarder whisperer. That's quite a title.

Stacey Franklin: 23:50

No, I'm trying to I'm trying to shift. If you're spiritual, I'm trying to shift the energy. I've been really working hard at it. But I do I have worked with several hoarders, they love me. They come to me. And for a long time, I actually got in there physically and helped them whenever somebody needed to purge their house and or, you know, of whatever it is clean, clean. I mean, I'll go in there and I'll clean the house before I hire a cleaner because I know how much it's gonna cost to clean the house. Like, I'll go up in there with my gloves and the scrubber and the everything that you need them all my bleach. And, and so with hoarders. My last experience which was recently with a hoarder, I, I didn't help physically, which was the first time actually that I said no, and, and I said, we will assess the house when everything is out, because I couldn't see anything.

John Laforme: 24:58

Sure. So Right now I'm trying to, I'm trying to picture you in a hazmat suit, when you go into a hoarders house, I hope you have on on

Stacey Franklin: 25:06

see. I'm certified in

John Laforme: 25:12

crazy people.

Stacey Franklin: 25:16

And, and another field where I had to be around really deep, dark smells. And, and so I can go, I can go into a house and take a deep breath before I go in and understand that it's not going to smell good. It's not going to feel good, right on my skin and in my eyes, and just relax. Yeah, so I stay as relaxed as possible so that I can interact with the client, because most of the time they feel shame. So you don't want to, you don't want to be the flame under that under that gas and blow that up in a way where they don't want you in the house. So you have to be as relaxed as possible. When you're working with a client like that. Well, you

John Laforme: 26:01

are a better person than I am. I have been in situations where I have walked through the front door, I literally get slapped in the face by the nastiest odors. And I just turn right around, go to the van and get my respirator and I do the entire inspection with a respirator on. I am not going to put up with that. And I got rubber gloves on. It's like, and I've actually turned down jobs in the past. I've walked in said I ain't touching this place left. I refunded their money. I want nothing to do with this.

Stacey Franklin: 26:34

Yeah, before you and I worked together. I had a house that was listed with another agent. This I knew the seller. She wasn't happy with the agent. She said I don't know what to do. And I said I'll bring you a buyer. She said it's a total fixer. I brought a buyer who's who was an investor and I was working with this other inspector who you've actually I think you've met before. And there were piles of cat feces that were up to his waist throughout the entire house. And it was the most he said he was sick for like three days after working in that environment.

John Laforme: 27:16

Specter border Crack House talking about the inspector.

Stacey Franklin: 27:21

Yeah, it was a total hoarder crack house. cat feces everywhere. No cat boxes, tons of cats. So I mean, we can

John Laforme: 27:30

get really sick seen some shit. You can get really sick from inhaling. So I'm telling you if you go into stuff you need to put a respirator on. Yeah, it's not good. You don't want that in your system. Some nasty stuff out there. So yeah, that's a interesting story. Yeah, the cat lady.

Stacey Franklin: 27:44

She's a cat lady. She's a cracked out cat lady.

John Laforme: 27:49

Okay, tip for everybody out there. Don't become a cat lady. A crackhead don't become a crack

Stacey Franklin: 27:58

don't like cats well on crack

John Laforme: 28:04

right so so I was talking about you know the interior, you know, the first impression of the interiors first impression of the exteriors do you recommend the paint the trim? If it's really peeling a lot of Ain I know there's probably different different circumstances on different sellers like some people like they're in bad shape, they just want someone to come take over they're not going to do anything.

Stacey Franklin: 28:29

Right. So I'm gonna give you two examples the house that I have on the market right now that I put up last week and the one that I sold before it the one that I sold this before the one that I have now it's a complete and total fixer. She was a collector my client was a collector

John Laforme: 28:47

what year was a house built you know 1956 Okay, that's pretty standard.

Stacey Franklin: 28:52

She'd done it she'd done some things she you know, she hydrogenated the sewer line a few times and had roots removed and you know, did repairs on the roof.

John Laforme: 29:02

Hang on, hang on. Are you losing we have to applaud the people that need applauding right she actually maintained her sewer line she

Stacey Franklin: 29:12

was also a collector of sorts

John Laforme: 29:16

what kind of collected water

Stacey Franklin: 29:18

so

John Laforme: 29:24

I'm just a kid playing with my toys

Stacey Franklin: 29:26

you can see what she was collecting because she's she's also a friend and a former client from another sale so

John Laforme: 29:34

Okay, gonna turn that back cool as possible.

Stacey Franklin: 29:38

But it wasn't entirely her fault actually. She is she had somebody living through this on the same page. And and I think that she would be a cleaner person living alone which we'll see. To be determined she then I actually sold the house but so you know the house needed stuff. And so once it was empty, I went in assessed everything and they wouldn't do anything. They wouldn't do it. single thing I literally had to have my husband go in and replace broken tile and install the smoke detectors. And oh, he's a handyman, hey, he's pretty handy. He helped my a friend of ours pretty much rebuild his whole house. So. So you know, we just we went in stuff that did stuff that didn't require a true professional, right. And just to get it sold, and it still wasn't enough, it still wasn't clean enough. I mean, I spent money getting it cleaned all the things. And so she refused to do anything. She want to spend a single dime it took. And this is when the market started to decline. This is a little over a month ago. And rates were starting to go up. And I think they were at like five and a half 6% Which is good now.

John Laforme: 30:46

Right?

Stacey Franklin: 30:48

Right, right, wow. And it took 35 days to sell after being up on the market as a coming soon for 20 days. So 50 days, you know, on public platforms exchange, because it wasn't clean. I mean, it was clean, because I went in there and I cleaned it every day, you know, every time I was in there, but and hired somebody but it was just not if you slap some carpet in and threw some paint on the walls, it would have sold much quicker, just those basics. And it didn't. So during that time I met the seller that I have now she came into the open house. And so she asked me to come see her place. And she was willing, she put about 35,000 into her house. Now she didn't do a whole remodel, but she was willing to listen to sell it to sell it. That's a lot of money. Right? I mean, it was, it was a rental for a long time. So I walked in and I said, Okay, you know, these are my recommendations, if you're not going to redo the roof, which she didn't want to she didn't want to deal with that, like, Okay, you're gonna have to make sure you prepare to give the buyer a credit, because they're gonna ask for one now, you know, the condition, right. But I'm like, you know, there is little, there's very little inventory on the market. And interest rates are high. So a buyer that's actually shopping right now is looking for something that they don't have to put money into, because they don't have it anymore. They have to put it into their downpayment. So so they don't have that money. And that cushion, most the general family that's been saving their money to buy their first house didn't have that extra cushion to be able to remodel in it, or the patients to remodel an entire house and get over the vision right, or, and pay a 7% interest rate every month until that house is finished, on top of whatever rent they're paying. So I gave her my recommendations, which were pretty basic paint the outside, paint the inside, change the baseboards, you know, if you don't want to redo the whole kitchen, do the countertops, change some tile out in the bathrooms to make it look clean? You know, do the refinishing on the bathtub, change the mirrors out in the bathrooms and the lighting throughout? And call it a day if you're willing to put that money in or pick and choose from some of those items? Let's let's see what's what are the most important items and make a list and, and let's get some of the stuff done. She did everything for me. So smart. Yeah. And, you know, unfortunately, the rates are high, and we'll see what happens. But the house was really cute. So it's moving.

John Laforme: 33:20

That's really good that she did all that work. I mean, that's that's a big chunk of change. For me. Of course, she's probably knew how much he was going to walk away with on the house. And that's probably what helped her decision alone. Right? Every she was like really low on her what she owed. And she's like, You know what, I'm gonna get it back anyway. So,

Stacey Franklin: 33:34

yeah. And she, you know, and I did, I went the extra mile for her. She's an older woman. And, you know, I went to Home Depot and picked up the tile and I went and loaded my truck full of bark. And wow, check you out. Yeah, I went and picked up all the plants to you know, a lot

John Laforme: 33:50

of realtors who are who are very proactive like that, just try to help. I mean, it's only helping you in the long run, you help but you're helping each other.

Stacey Franklin: 33:57

And I don't mind doing it because I don't work with 60 clients a month. I don't mind it. I like it. So it's, you know, in any you know, whatever. Agents will come to me and say, Why do you spend your time doing that? And it's because I like to

John Laforme: 34:13

let the truth set you free. Right? That's I mean, there's nothing wrong with that.

Stacey Franklin: 34:16

Right? Why aren't you out there trying to get more clients because I don't? Yeah, cuz people ask

John Laforme: 34:21

me all the time. I get asked all the time he How come you don't have a multiple inspector firm? How come you just you? Because I'm happy, right? I work at my own pace. I take the work I want to take American dream, right. I mean, I'm self employed successful. It's like, I don't want to have a headache. I've tried having helpers before. It was very stressful. I'm not saying I won't do it in the future. As I get older, maybe I will take somebody into it's if I can't handle the work anymore when I'm 110 Right. I plan on working for a long time because I like to do stuff But anyway, yeah, it's just the same all the way around. So you got to create your own happiness. Right. And if if you're a slave to the job all the time, I remember when I started up my business, I was at it 24/7 I was getting sick all the time, I was getting heat exhaustion. I was just had massive headaches all the time. And I finally dug myself in and had a really good clientele. So I was able to slow down a little bit not take so many jobs and things were very steady. So I try to maintain that. No,

Stacey Franklin: 35:30

yeah, I have. I have moments where I can maintain I'm kind of like a I'm an all or nothing person. So like, right now I have, you know, I have three rentals, two of them with one client, which I'm running, you know, I'm trying not to run myself ragged over, right? You trying to get them rented? I'm trying to get it rented, like I have them all rented, but and then I have my listing. So with that, I tend to be working from the moment I opened my eyes until the moment I shut them because rentals are so they're pretty hectic. Yeah, to be really responsive. So. So I actually just got over being sick. Did you? Yeah, because I was working for 40 days in a row. And then I'll take you know, I'll take a couple of weeks and let the other business flow in. Or I'll work on the listing that I have for sale, which you know, when you have a listing, and it's up, you're not working every day.

John Laforme: 36:26

Right, right. All right, Stacy. So at let me ask you this. When you're about to list the property you've met, you're obviously got your client set up, you got it you got someone who wants to sell, you've gone through all your steps, you've you've been recommended they clean up the inside your recommended they get rid of the cats, whatever it is, you recommended all these things. What do you focus on when you're typing in? You're the one that creates the listing right with all the information. So tell me what you put in that listing text wise, and why.

Stacey Franklin: 37:03

So no matter what kind of listing I get, whether it's a fixer or whether it's a remodeled house, I focus on the neighborhood and what the what the best parts of the neighborhood are first. So is it on a tree line Street? Is it a quiet neighborhood? Are the neighbors amazing? I start there and then I go into the house the square footage of the house? I don't I don't really list the square footage, but I label with the size with the size present, is it open concept? Is it bringing a lot of light? Is it is it is does the energy flow in a way that you feel like you can move around? What are the best parts of the house. And then I go into the remodeling portion if it's if it's remodeled, what kind of countertops and floors and and appliances there are. I don't go too deep on that. Because you can just say that they're new unless they're brand name without going. Going crazy. I feel like because most people actually there are some people that read every word of the description and but most people don't, they kind of skim through it and they go Okay, it looks new, then they look at the pictures. So

John Laforme: 38:08

that's because it's like a big paragraph like this tall. Right? And that's nonsense. I don't understand why it's the plant like Redfin's platform. It's like a big block of text on my Who the hell is going to read that? I'm not. I'm trying to go through it going, man, this is shit. There's no no breaks in the sense.

Stacey Franklin: 38:26

Let me tell you when somebody on any platform, whether it's real estate, Instagram, Facebook friends, if that if the if the text is more than this, I skip it. Yeah, maybe it might be my ADD, but

John Laforme: 38:43

we all have that I

Stacey Franklin: 38:44

have some severe ad DS I have to really focused on working. But I just want to know, what are the what are the meat and potatoes? They're right, you know, what's this house about? Okay, I'm gonna go and see it. So don't be you know, I'm trying to be as clean and professional and as inarticulate as possible because there are descriptions that I read where I'm like, who wrote this? And why.

John Laforme: 39:09

Now, do you feel that your listing is accurate?

Stacey Franklin: 39:12

I do. I make sure that if I don't make it sound bigger and better than it is but I also don't if it's not a great listing. I also don't make it sound like a piece of shit.

John Laforme: 39:26

Alright, so now I'm gonna push. Now I'm gonna push back on you a little okay. There's a reason why I asked you that. Okay, I'm not trying to set you up. I'm just No, no,

Stacey Franklin: 39:34

I will take all of you you know, you've so given me constructive criticism the whole time. I've known you Yeah.

John Laforme: 39:41

If you if you have not personally looked at the furnace because it's in the attic. If you were unable to access the water heater, if you were if you don't know what the what type of plumbing is in the house off. If you don't know, those key things, then your description can't be accurate unless you're just completely leaving those out of your, of your listing. So I'm saying this because it goes to pointing the the benefits of a pre listing inspection. So if you have somebody who knows what they're looking for, come through that house and point out, hey, look, you know what? Your furnace is only 10 years old. That's, that's great news. It's way better than saying it's 30 years old. Right? Okay. So if you knew that, that could go on your listing furnace, proximately 10 years old air conditioner approximately seven years old. So that's letting them know hey, you know what? It's not it's not an antique? Not an antique system? Is the water heater. Is it tankless? Is it a, just a conventional tank? We need them what? It doesn't matter which ones which but some people really get excited when they hear a tankless. So if there's a tankless, I'd recommend you put that in your listing. Right? So I mean, get very excited about

Stacey Franklin: 41:06

that. I do. So if the systems are newer, I definitely put that in the listing if the systems are older, I do not if you don't know.

John Laforme: 41:13

But if you don't know. My point is if I don't know,

Stacey Franklin: 41:17

if I don't know, I usually ask. And if I if they don't know, then I don't know. Some clients are not willing to do no matter how hard you impress on them that they should do a pre listing, listing inspection. They still they don't want to spend the money. I get this last woman that I was gently What was that lady was not going to spend?

John Laforme: 41:38

She she needed Ace Ventura pet detective over there. That's what she needed. She

Stacey Franklin: 41:43

really needed to just stop smoking crack. She just, that's is a great start. So, and she did eventually she actually did she's clean now. And we're friends. Oh, that's good. Yeah, it's been many years. But during that time, it was very exciting. And there was a lot going on. And so this woman that I'm working with now that did all of the work for the property, she actually had the property listed in the condition that it was in before prior to meeting me, she had a pre listing inspection with a listing agent that she was working with, before me. And so she was able to give me that report, she handed me the report, I skimmed through it. And I was like, Okay, these are the things that we need to deal with. Right. And so I said, if you don't deal with them, you're going to now you're going to deal with them later. So another inspector is going to come in here call out the same stuff. And so this is approximately the cost I would you know, I've worked with so many, so many vendors, in with, with buyers and in other other capacities with sellers like that, I know basic costs for certain things. And if I don't know the answers, then I can call my vendors and say, Hey, what do you think this will cost? So I can kind of give like a window of what the cost would be for these things to be repaired in usually buyers will pad their or their, if they know their vendors, they'll ask them to pad the cost estimate, depending on the buyer. And so I'm like, This is what you could expect, you can expect for them to come back and say, Hey, give me 10 grand, right? So, or 20, grand or whatever, whatever the cost is. And so these are things we should fix, so that they're not outstanding. And we can either negotiate on whatever else they're gonna ask for or tell them no, they can deal with it themselves. Right?

John Laforme: 43:35

So when you are, I'm going to go back a little bit when you are actually preparing the house for sale. Do you check the air filter for the ajrakh?

Stacey Franklin: 43:48

I don't always check it it depends on the client. But I do ask if it's changed. First and foremost, most because if I'm going to be sitting open houses, I want the air to be as clean as possible because I get really sick from allergies. Right? It's kind of a self sure self centered tip

John Laforme: 44:07

for you in an older house on an older house that doesn't give you a tip on an older house. Look for it yourself. Sometimes homeowners have more than one view and they shouldn't have more than one just a basic sits one split system should only have one filter. And then because when a guy like me shows up with the buyer, I'm like Hey, I found two filters in this thing that both filled with cat here because we're on the topic that's That's disgusting.

Stacey Franklin: 44:40

Has it been changed been changed in 20 years? Yes, I'm even make this brand anymore. Right? Exactly.

John Laforme: 44:46

I've actually had I pulled filters and it was labeled five years ago. No, no shit. And multiple air filters are completely clogged. So we have to deliver that news by the way that filters are completely cool. Log In. That means no one has served as this system in the past five years. Because if an H fat guy showed up to do that and didn't pull those filters, he should be fired. Anyway, I'm just saying, little tip for you check those yourself just to make sure they're good because more times than not, I show up. Everyone thinks everything's perfect. And the first thing I find, before I turn the system on, I always check the filter. Because I don't want I want to, I want to know that it's going to work, right? Give me the most accurate temperatures, it's not going to give me accurate temperatures. With a filthy filter.

Stacey Franklin: 45:32

I'm gonna go home and change my filter. Yes, everybody. But

John Laforme: 45:36

every three months, guys, boys and girls, everybody listening, if you haven't changed your filter, within three months, go change it now. If you got cats, dogs, change it every two months, you have a dog. Right? If you have one of those really thick media filters, like four inches thick, those are typically good for about six, six months to a year.

Stacey Franklin: 45:58

I think we have the kind that the high end when you can hose out super expensive.

John Laforme: 46:03

I'll get rid of that thing. Just go buy some cheap ones. Okay, waste your money. All right, just just a marketing thing. Is it? That's awesome marketing. Do you know that the air filters is to help you breathe better? Yes, that's for that. No, I'm joking with you. That's not what it is?

Stacey Franklin: 46:19

No. Is it to filter? It's to filter out all of that? No. What is it? What is it? Do

John Laforme: 46:26

the air filter on your age fax system is to keep the system clean? Oh has nothing to do with your breathability

Stacey Franklin: 46:35

such a letdown.

John Laforme: 46:38

Most people think that that's why.

Stacey Franklin: 46:40

Well, thank you. Why haven't you shared this with me in the past? You're saving it up for this time?

John Laforme: 46:47

Well, I just thought you knew.

Stacey Franklin: 46:51

Thanks, John. Don't assume

John Laforme: 46:58

all right, so. So out of out of a if you had to do, let's say you had in six months time you had, I don't know, eight or 10, sellers, listings? How many of those owners knew nothing about their house? And how many did

Stacey Franklin: 47:24

I would say that, if I had let's say I had 10 sellers, two of them would not know, most people know what they've done to their property. It's the two that had never been homeowners in the past are so busy that they're never home. Usually single people that just don't, they don't pay attention. They're used to being renters, and other people handling their stuff. I've had sellers that are like, Oh, I've never changed the filter. You know, their looks and they're just kind of like, they go about their happy, Merry lives and don't understand that there's a whole, you know, you you need to put that list together of how to maintain your property. I'm so anal retentive about taking care of my house. You know, as I'm sure you will be. I mean, I have a termite inspection every year I make sure and I'm always looking around to see if there's any dry rot around the eaves. I'm, you know, changing the filter likes because you look at it every day. Yeah, you know, if there's a leak, I handle it. Yeah. So if there's, if my water bill goes up in any way, make sure and check the property to see if there were any leaks. I'm all over it. So like, but not everybody's like that, because they're not in our business, or they're just not as as savvy and aware. You know,

John Laforme: 48:47

we all have different, you know, priorities in our life and, and they never taught us how to change a filter in school. Right? I really think that schools really should have a section on how to how to take care of a home because we know your parents don't know how do

Stacey Franklin: 49:04

they took woodshop out of schools

John Laforme: 49:07

that they really Yeah, I used to I was in woodshop years. I

Stacey Franklin: 49:10

don't have wood shop anymore. Not where not where we go. Yeah.

John Laforme: 49:13

Wow. Yeah. That was a lot of fun. Yeah.

Stacey Franklin: 49:17

They do have good music class.

John Laforme: 49:18

I'm sure they have. They have some economics where they you can bake a cake and get rid of that

Stacey Franklin: 49:22

too. Wow, there we go. Yeah.

John Laforme: 49:26

So what do they have?

Stacey Franklin: 49:27

I mean, they have now they have actually really cool music classes where it's not band where you can create music and electronic music and learn how to use the computer and do music editing and the birth of DJs it's pretty cool. Actually, I when I went to back to school, school night, and I'm sitting I sat down in the class and I'm like, I got cheated. There.

John Laforme: 49:53

Yeah, right. Yeah, that's interesting. So Wow.

Stacey Franklin: 49:57

So they do have some cool stuff that they've supplemented, but that you know, They did take out all the all the basics like, how to, you know, do they have how to wash your dishes?

John Laforme: 50:06

Do they have tick tock classes in school? They,

Stacey Franklin: 50:09

they actually have graphic design classes where they teach you how to make videos for tick tock.

John Laforme: 50:14

No way. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. He's a wonderful who's sponsoring that? Right? I'd never thought I'd hear that. That's crazy. All right. So here's a good one. So what do you do if you've, you think you've checked everything in the house, you've done your, to the best of your knowledge, you've noticed everything in the house, what you know what you've been, what's been disclosed to you, and so forth. And then I show up. And you don't know me, and I'm just, I'm just the buyer's home inspector. And Isaiah, by the way, you get knob and tube wiring in the house that you didn't, you weren't aware of, because you don't know where to look, you didn't go in the attic, you didn't go in the crawlspace. Maybe you just don't have enough experience to know what that looks like. That can happen too, right? depends on your level of experience as a realtor, you know, you're not going to know these things. But it's good to learn, you know, hopefully learn from the one that you just tripped over. And oh, shit, we have knob and tube wiring. That's enough to scare anybody away.

Stacey Franklin: 51:19

Yeah, I don't know, you've I don't we've never had that together. So now, just learning

John Laforme: 51:25

to and that's typically in a much older building, you know, early 1900s, stuff like that. Okay. So and then there's, you know, so I'm just now telling you that. So, how do you deal with it? What do you tell your seller? In the example that you just didn't know about? Some?

Stacey Franklin: 51:44

Well, I mean, I always prepare the seller. First of all, even if we do do work, I tell them upfront that I mean, I've worked with brand new construction homes, right? Okay, I worked with homes that are were built in the night in the 1800s. Nice. So, you know, it's, you're gonna find problems in every single house, I don't care how bright how new the house is, you're going to have problems. And so whether those problems are easy to, you know, easy to fix, or whether they're severe, your your report is still, it's not going to be five pages, it'll never be five pages. Never Never. So I always

John Laforme: 52:25

think I know an inspection company that does give you five pages. And they only charge 199.

Stacey Franklin: 52:30

Wow, I get what you pay for. So I always I say it's gonna be it's never pretty, because they're photos of the broken things. And it's photos of the system, photos of the systems are not pretty even if they're in working condition. So your report is always going to be a shock, it's going to be ugly, there's going to be a lot of writing, there are going to be things in red. And so you just have to mentally prepare yourself that we're going to go through items, and we can go through them together. And I'll go through the report before I get to my client and say these are the most important items. And then I'll show them the report. And then they can go through it and have their panic attack. But

John Laforme: 53:10

but we say Don't panic, right?

Stacey Franklin: 53:12

I always say don't panic, too, but nobody ever listens. So unless they don't take care of their house, and they don't care what they see. So they're like, I'll just handle it, you know. So, you know, I always prepare them that there's going to be there's going to be stuff. So no matter how much we fix, they're going to be they're going to be items on the report and and there'll be addressed by the buyer, no matter what unless we're in that market that we just did that we're now out of. Right. So. All

John Laforme: 53:40

right. So what tips do you have for any potential sellers right now with this changing market? How to better prepare, before you even show up? anybody listening right now it's a case to thinking about selling what what would you suggest they do to their house prior to getting a realtor involved, I mean, just go through it, I mean, clean it.

Stacey Franklin: 54:01

So prior to interviewing agents and having them show up at your house. We're all different. Get your house cleaned, clean it, so that we can see behind the items, all of your knickknacks and your tchotchkes and your the box that's covering the outlets and clean the house get all of the clutter out of the way so we can see. And some agents are more detail oriented than others. So some will walk by that giant crack in the ceiling. That's that that doesn't look like that could possibly look like shifting of some sort or cracks in the foundation that you can visibly see when you're outside. Some people will walk past those. Some people who are detail oriented might walk past those things, but we should be able to see them they should be exposed. So anything that you know could be a problem. Just make sure you make a note of it, talk about it with the agent, talk about these things, tell them what's new, tell them what isn't new.

John Laforme: 55:08

And paperwork really helps you have a paper trail of the repair you did, by all means keep those things and give it to the realtor when they come in. So they can actually have proof that what you're saying is not a bunch of BS,

Stacey Franklin: 55:20

right? And remember, at the end of the day, you know, sure, it's, it's all about your money, right? But you have to go to the process to get your money. Right. So

John Laforme: 55:33

it is a process,

Stacey Franklin: 55:34

it's, you know, a lot of a lot of people say that we get paid too much for what we do. And sometimes we do, sometimes the job is easy, but 90% of the time, the job is hard, right. And we are here to absorb the stress. When you when we have inspections. And everybody's, you know, we have to keep everybody from being contentious and stressed out and stay relaxed during the process. So just, you know, when you go to choose somebody, make sure that they're that person that communicates with you and keeps you as relaxed as possible with being able to get things done and get you to the finish line in a professional and clean way where you feel comfortable the whole time knowing that you can trust your money with that person.

John Laforme: 56:27

Sure. Okay. So now I want to give my opinion on the benefits of pre listing inspections. Okay, for everyone to hear. So in your opinion, what do you think the number one priority for a home inspector is? Priority? What's our main priority for a home inspector? And we should find everything that's wrong? Close? Close, you're there to find everything that's broken dude. Find it all. Actually, safety hazards. Okay, that's our main thing.

Stacey Franklin: 57:05

That should have been my first answer. But it wasn't that good. No, you

John Laforme: 57:08

had a good answer. So what I mean by safety issues, are the other steps up walking up to the house that are damaged? Or is it missing handrails that somebody put in door tile on the outside? So when it gets wet, it's all slippery.

Stacey Franklin: 57:23

So you can break your neck? Yeah, I've

John Laforme: 57:25

done so safety issues, you know is, is they're exposed wiring on the property. A lot of times it'd be like a junction box coming out of the dirt. And this box is wide open and put a sniffer on it's live. You know, those are things. Those are things that you don't want the buyer's inspector to find. You want to go around the property and look like that doesn't look safe. Let's get that fixed. Can I trip over them? Is there a trip hazard? Is? Is the walkway higher on this side? And then the other side can somebody trip. I mean, I've gone through houses and literally find 10 safety hazards, like just on the outside. And I have to note all that. So that's that starts to stack up on a report. And it can be a little overwhelming because

Stacey Franklin: 58:15

that's Is there a zinsco panel with melting breakers.

John Laforme: 58:18

Yeah, we're gonna get to that you and you mentioned you have a story for me, we're gonna get to that. So, you know, going in the crawlspace in the attic is typically where safety issues exist, disconnect that exhaust vent pipes in the crawlspace. If it's a really old house with a floor furnace, or even a newer home, that might have a system installed under in the crawlspace or basement. Leaking, leaking exhaust from the furnace, possible carbon monoxide going into the house because the safety issues up in an attic disconnected exhaust vent pipes could be from the water heater can be from the furnace once again. So the main thing we're looking for are safety hazards. So that in itself is all red. And a report everything's labeled as red. Because it's could cause personal injury or worse, you know, death you know, something like that. So that is the main job of a home inspector. Finding a loose loose thing in the house or you know port poor citing poor siding, installation, that's nothing that's just something that can be fixed. But letting the customers know how old their major systems are. That's the most important thing, right? So it's kind of like a two way street there. When it comes to well the furnace. A furnace typically a furnace and an AC typically have a life expects the 1520 years for it to be efficient. Now could still be working. I see him all the time to 30 years old and at crankin you know, they sound good. They're not noisy. They're still quiet. It is and then pushing good airflow, good heat flow throughout the house and everything seems to be balanced, good, great, but it doesn't take away from the fact that it could expire at any time because of the age. So it's a really hard situation to be in as a home inspector talking to a realtor, or the potential buyers how to describe that. Well, every first thing I started with, everything is working. However, the entire H vac system has reached the end of its serviceable life. Bingo, everyone starts freaking out, right? It's like ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. everybody freaks out. Everyone freaks out. Yeah. So I wish that didn't happen. I know, there's really no need to freak out. I just told you everything's working. Did you not know you're buying a used house? An old house? Right? Not? Did you not know the house is built in 1950. That's, that's what I started thinking, Well, why you got that look on your face. So I didn't panic anybody. I just let them know the facts. I didn't yell it. I deliver it in the same monotone voice I always do. By the way, it is at the end of its life expectancy. Okay, John. So what's a typical life expectancy? And I tell him, you know, 1520 years typically. And then the listing agent. But But you said it's working? Yes, ma'am. I made that abundantly clear. And that was the first words out of my mouth.

Stacey Franklin: 1:01:28

That usually is the listing agent. And then the buyer's agent is trying to buffer the stress between the listing agent and now the buyer, right. If there are if everybody's present, and then you have the seller, if they're present going. It works, but it works.

John Laforme: 1:01:45

Well, the roofs not leaking right now. Mike says it ain't raining. Right. You know what I mean? Yeah, the roofs damaged. Yeah. But there's no evidence of leaks. listing agents, please don't say that to your inspector. Yeah. There's no, no one needs to hear you say that. Right. I know. It's an it's a defensive reaction. I get it. Yeah. But it's not a debate. We're not there to debate the condition of the house with you. We're there to tell you. This is the age. This is the condition. And that is it. Yeah, we're not there for debate. I hate to shut people down.

Stacey Franklin: 1:02:19

You listen, you've taught me everything, you know, and I listen. Good. So when I see another inspector, and they come in, and they're depending on whatever their energy is, I go, I'm gonna you're telling you're here to tell me what's up. It's all good. That's it? I can't change it, you know, not today. I mean, I could change it today if I hired somebody, but you know, it is what it is. Here's something

John Laforme: 1:02:39

that came up a couple of days ago, on a house. It was an old roof, it was multiple layers. But the top layer was holding up fairly well. I mean, there wasn't a bunch of granule loss. It wasn't falling apart. There wasn't loose shingles everywhere. So I tell my customers and they're relative. I said, you know, the roofs older, but it's not in bad shape. The small sections of the roof, the flat roof areas, those need to be replaced. And then she asked me, the relative asked me, So what's the age of the roof? So I want to clear this up on the podcast right now. Okay. Nobody can pinpoint the age of a roof by looking at it. They don't come with labels. So stop asking home inspectors. It's a very repetitive question. If it comes out of my buyers mouth, I expect it and I'm okay with it. I don't I'm not okay with it when a realtor asked me that question, because it's unnecessary. So I usually ask should know this by now. Right. Usually,

Stacey Franklin: 1:03:49

if I ask anything about the roof, it's how long do you think we have left?

John Laforme: 1:03:53

Sure.

Stacey Franklin: 1:03:54

You know, how long do you think we have left?

John Laforme: 1:03:56

Which brings another question isn't it

Stacey Franklin: 1:03:57

could be weather related. It could be rain related. I mean, who knows what kind of weather you've been working in? Or you know, whether it's it's heat related to me whether it's a construction related, how long do we have left? Dude, tell me

John Laforme: 1:04:11

so what's more important? That's the big question. What's more important, the age of the roof or the condition of the roof? Why is no one else catching on to that? I don't get I don't get it. I just literally scratch my head every day when a realtor says that to me. Well, how old are these brain works differently? Well, one, no one really knows the age unless you have a permit invoice. You have paperwork, a paper trail, a way to prove when it was installed. Oh, it's 20 years. Oh, it's done. It's not done. Is this is really happening right now. I just bought a house within the past 24 hours. The roof is 20 years old. The roof is in great condition. There's no granule loss on it. There's no broken shingles they're not brittle and fallen apart. Right, it's fine. I have no problem with the roof on that house being 20 years old, it doesn't matter how old the roof is, it didn't matter. It matters, the condition of the roof, which is going to tell you a few things. Well, it was installed correctly, probably by by someone who knew what they were doing. It's good decent ventilation through the attic. It's just holding up. Some roofs do not perform well. Because the installation, right, and they tend to fail quick, like houses with multiple layers tend to cook a lot faster than because there's just no way from the vent properly because of the multiple layers,

Stacey Franklin: 1:05:37

right? So there's a lot of good information, actually,

John Laforme: 1:05:41

there's a lot of things to consider. So really focus on the condition of the roof, not the age of the roof. It seems to be I think it's backwards. And it just at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter. Oh my god, it's 19 and a half years old. You want to celebrate its birthday? It's tomorrow, right? So who gives a shit? What's the condition? Is it holding up? Is it repelling water? Like it's supposed to? It's

Stacey Franklin: 1:06:06

the mind is like, yeah, how long will it last? Before I have to replace it? You know, the plumbings whatever the no one galvanized plumbing. There's, there's, you know, the fittings are not the proper fittings, does it? Is it functional? And how long do I have before I have to replace it? How long does the client have before they have to replace it?

John Laforme: 1:06:30

So the importance of having a pre listing inspection? That's just my opinion. And I know a lot of other people who agree with that. So a lot of people don't I get it, that's fine. But what's happening is if you don't know anything about the house, and the seller doesn't know anything about the house, and you just listing it, and that happens a lot. People know nothing about this house and I'm just like, shocked, like, I'm looking at the buyers relative don't you didn't know that. How did you not know that your job is to know what they're about to buy, right? Am I wrong?

Stacey Franklin: 1:07:09

I mean, you're You mean the sellers Realtor you said the buyer's realtor so you know the buyers real or the buyer's realtor. Okay, so you know, there, I, I used you on an inspection on a property that we pulled out of looked clean. I always now from this experience suggest you open up all the closets, including the water heater closet. Do you remember when we worked with it was one of my hoarders? Actually. One of my hoarders. We were up in Westlake Village at a condo. Oh yes, super clean, and super pretty and didn't smell like mold. Usually. I usually I can smell the moisture when I walk in. And I'm like, I forgot about that. And we you took a video though. And you shared it on your YouTube. Yep. And, and you the first thing you did was open up the Oh no, it was that it was the AC the HVAC

John Laforme: 1:08:07

furnace closet.

Stacey Franklin: 1:08:09

And it was covered in mold, floor to ceiling wall to wall. The all underneath it was like right in front of you. I was like oh my god. And you know, she was like this client had already had issues with mold. She's had issues with mold in literally everywhere she's ever lived in that's like, she's like we you please check for mold. And I'm like, it's gonna be fine. Don't ever tell them it's gonna be fine. Ever. And never deter anybody from getting a Mold Inspection if that's what they want. You give it to them. Right? Especially if you smell moisture in the house. Good

John Laforme: 1:08:44

advice from other relatives. Yeah, yes, definitely don't. That was the that

Stacey Franklin: 1:08:48

was the one transaction I did. Because prior to that, I think I had one other client asked me if they if they thought they should get a mold, mold inspection. And I said it's up to you. And now I'm like, you should get a Mold Inspection every time and if there's

John Laforme: 1:09:02

any any question about a mold from a customer, get it done this put them at ease. Otherwise, they're going to dwell on it for the whole transaction.

Stacey Franklin: 1:09:11

I'm like the live in learn person, but that was a big, that was a big learn. Yes, and by the way animals,

John Laforme: 1:09:18

I'm gonna put that link to that video in the podcast description. And on the YouTube version, I'll also put a link there so you can watch that that really happened. So open up those closets. Let me explain. Now let me explain that to everybody how that happens. So typically what I normally do, as I mentioned earlier when I go into a house, before I turn on the heating and cooling, I always check the filters and this had a vertical furnace in the closet with the return right below it which is a typical scenario on like a condo or a townhome or something like that. And bam I opened the door and there's just black all over the place. And then I pulled the covers off the furnace looked inside the the plenum area and right, the right side of that plenum wall was the kitchen sink. So just on the other side of that wall was the kitchen sink. So you know, it was just a small unit. And it turns out, I believe, if I remember correctly, it was the condensate line that was leaking into the wall. It went into the wall. So he really had a look for it. But there was mold everywhere.

Stacey Franklin: 1:10:24

Yeah. So he had to demo the kitchen.

John Laforme: 1:10:28

Yeah. Did you get a quote on that? I remember you remember, you told me there was a, it was pretty expensive, like 30 grand or something to fix it. And they had to pull all the walls out.

Stacey Franklin: 1:10:37

You know, we had two different people come out and they give us disparagingly there was a huge gap between I had like the cheap guy and I had the expensive guy the scammer,

John Laforme: 1:10:49

and right.

Stacey Franklin: 1:10:52

And yeah, it was like the one of them was like a $6,000 estimate. The other one was like a 25,000 plus that you had to remove the entire kitchen and walls and drywall and do everything and a portion of the floors. And I believe adorable little place was like a probably the reason that the the person who lived there before it passed away in the house. They were older and they'd been there for many years. Got sick. And I mean, who knows? I mean, they could have died. Yeah, something else but like, it's not I'm sure it didn't help. Not at

John Laforme: 1:11:23

all. No. black mold. Even if you have a respiratory problem. I'm pretty sure the air samples I took also came back positive.

Stacey Franklin: 1:11:30

Yeah, it was like the worst kind of mold. You can statue

John Laforme: 1:11:33

buttress, yeah. Statue, buttress. Yeah, he bought truss right there. So yeah, good. I'm glad you brought that up. So I totally forgot. Yeah, that was a long time ago. So I just want to add, if I just want to add a few more things to, you know, stay on point here with, you know, pre listing inspections, because I really pushed that hard. We already talked about the safety hazards. You know, water pressure is another thing that you are not you are not going to know about and more times than not, it's out of control on the house. Right? That's, that can be why faucets are running toilet. I'm saying toilets are running faucets are dripping.

Stacey Franklin: 1:12:13

And let me give you an example. Their heads are broke of water pressure regulator being out, okay. In my house, my water pressure regulator for my for my irrigation system went out. And I had a huge flood. And this was like four months ago. We couldn't get it under control. It was like 1000s of dollars to try and find where the leaks were to, you know, to finally get them kept off and repaired and all of the things and then when my plumber looked at the other regulator, he said, you know, this is right, this is the same age as the other regulator, do you want to leave it? It's functional? And well, no, no, replace it? Yeah, I mean, because

John Laforme: 1:12:55

you're lucky you had a regulator on your irrigation, right? Just don't know,

Stacey Franklin: 1:12:59

we did it. It was old. So I'm like, I don't want the same thing to happen inside my house as it did outside. So that was that was a an awakening for me. When Yeah, because I didn't, I didn't I never digested the information when being told multiple times that a pressure regulator is old or not working properly, what the repercussions could be. And I was literally in my own house and spend my own money. And it was rough. It was a rough experience.

John Laforme: 1:13:30

Yeah, I suggest anybody that owns a house, check the pressure once a year. Yeah, just go buy a $20 $15 gauge at Home Depot, take off your hose, connect the gauge, turn it on, and if it's past 75 Replace your regulator that and I will put a link to my recent episode with Robert Dell plumbing. We broke down water pressure and the importance of it in detail a great video you'll learn a lot from that. I'll send you a link to it. If you haven't watched Have you watched it you haven't watched it shame on you know,

Stacey Franklin: 1:14:07

I've been watching a lot of tick tock videos. Yep. On How To Make potatoes.

John Laforme: 1:14:12

So outdated electrical system. Nothing wrong with having an outdated electrical system. But there's a couple brands out there that you want to definitely know is on the house if you're selling it so you can disclose it up front so there's no shock and awe when the buyer's inspector tells you you have zinsco brand worse than that is a Federal Pacific statblock Those that those are the worst. There's also another brand called Bulldog Porsche Matic so

Stacey Franklin: 1:14:44

I've never heard of these brands. I've heard that the zinsco and establish that I have a story for you with that so when you're ready for it, yes. And we'll

John Laforme: 1:14:50

get into that shortly. You know, outdated windows and doors. Anything with single pane glass is a thing of the past. It's it's just an upgrade. There's no need to panic over that. It's just the house. The owners never upgraded to Windows. If you're running a central and cooling system, great idea to upgrade your windows to at least double pane. Some people like triple pane if you've got the money to afford it, it's more expensive. A worn out roof. Yeah, you want to know that? Before you list the house? Yeah, you really do. Because that tells you the condition of the roof. Right? Not the age. It may indicate that it's 30 year old roof and it's just completely falling apart. But once again, just the condition of the roof is what's important. Is your multiple layers. People want to know that. So you want to disclose that as a seller, you want to disclose that. So there's no surprise, right? And then it makes your transaction go smoother.

Stacey Franklin: 1:15:48

The one that I have right now, there are two layers of roofing and it's it needs to be replaced. It's an older roof, you can see the grand Viola Yeah. So she chose where she wanted to put her money in and I was like, okay, you know, yeah, we do need it to look presentable.

John Laforme: 1:16:04

And we're now talking and talking to everybody about the responses from a potential buyer when they find out it's a new roof. They're very excited. Very excited. Oh, it's got a new it's got a new roof Mike. Yeah, it looks like it just got put on and by the way, the installer did a fantastic job. That's what I want to tell everybody but that's very rare. I say that right? Most most roofing jobs I

Stacey Franklin: 1:16:29

love when you say that to me. Yeah, I love it. And I am excited to me good news.

John Laforme: 1:16:35

And over and over again, when there's a really good roofing system installed are really good. Ah, fact I make I make it a point to say, Whoever installed it did a fantastic job on it. I pushed that so they know Oh, wow, this thing was installed. It's new. And it was installed correctly. And it's working great. Bam. Now they're really excited. electrical panels when I tell them it's got an outdated panel. Anything electrical, you gotta remember is a potential fire hazard. I'm sorry. safety hazard notified not always a fire but safety.

Stacey Franklin: 1:17:07

I always think fire though. Okay, that's fine.

John Laforme: 1:17:10

I do but anything electrical can scare. Most people, of course. Because you think fire. Yeah. So that's a big one. Yeah, that's a big one. So for sellers disclose what kind of panel you have have somebody that knows what to look for. Take a look at it. Either get a home inspector, again electrician to come by and look if you haven't no one. Hey, what's the brand? Is it a GE is it established? GE is okay. You know, those are good ones. But is it a today's type? Conventional breaker is not a thing of the past, a really old obsolete, what I call them as functionally obsolete. They're because they're still working. Right? Doesn't mean they won't have problems. And sometimes when I look in those old zinsco panels, I see that a bunch of those breakers have been replaced already. That's because they've been having problems. Right. That's how it goes. So So anyway, yeah, those are those are the ones that scare buyers. These are the points. I'm just trying to point out what scares buyers, right if it's an old system, and foundations, let's clear the air on foundations right now. Most homes are going to, he's going to have what's called a hairline crack and a foundation. Nothing to be concerned with. It's very common. But cracks kill people. Cracks killed deals, I'm gonna say I'm talking drywall cracks, people freak out over drywall cracks. I did an episode on the podcast all about that and what is scary and what's not scary. stress cracks can be a sign of a bigger problem. Just a straight crack and drywall probably just a shitty drywall job. Right? We had a little seismic activity in it just shook it loose. You know, most of the time, it's really nothing.

Stacey Franklin: 1:19:00

Yeah, so I've seen some pretty severe foundation problems. And, and it's, it's, it's a hard, it's a hard vendor to find, first of all, to do the work, especially if it's not an expensive problem. But the buyer wants it handled. So, you know, I've never really been able to find anybody who will do a small job like that. And, and, and the big jobs are pretty expensive. So yeah. So that's a tough one. You know, yes, it is a tough one.

John Laforme: 1:19:36

It's a tough one on home inspectors because we don't want to tell you, you got to get a foundation inspection when we know it's just a minor crack. But when I have to tell you, it's there. I mean, I'm not alone. It can scare some people.

Stacey Franklin: 1:19:48

When I pulled when we bought our house and we pulled the floors up. We're on a slab you could see the crack on the from the front of the house going all the way through to the kitchen, right. And it'd be alarming and I was like, Oh, that sucks. And so, you know, whatever, we had our repairs done and everything and I asked my contractor, I was like, What's the worst that can happen? He's like, Oh, the front of your house could fall off. I'm like, Okay. I mean, that's it during an earthquake, you know, not just gonna fall off. So

John Laforme: 1:20:19

most concrete cracks slabs. If, if 10 people on a slab foundation pulled up their floors, they're going to see a crack, right? Likely, just fill it. Just fill it out, fill it check outside, make sure you get good drainage on the outside areas that might have been what caused it in the first place. Right? No drainage water sitting. That's typically the same scenario.

Stacey Franklin: 1:20:41

Yeah, it's I didn't panic. We had our we had our repair done. And I'm like, we own the house now. So it hasn't fallen down. Yeah. hasn't fallen down now. Yeah, good one. Yeah.

John Laforme: 1:20:51

That's a good one. Yeah. Okay, everybody. Well, it's a we're what two days away from Halloween. Right now. We are Halloween 2022. And we have a horror story for you. We do so yeah, I'm gonna let Stacy tell.

Stacey Franklin: 1:21:06

But I have so many ghost stories. come on and talk about those. This is a horror story. All right. The horror story starts with my friend, my trainer did not use me as an agent, we were actually weren't really that close at the time when she bought her property. But I didn't know and have a radio show with her boyfriend at the time, for quite a long time. So it was kind of you know, he wanted to use his real estate agent. Fine. Okay. Not Not everybody's made for me. I'm not gonna get every

John Laforme: 1:21:39

would you like to give this person a cyber slap over the air? Just a little right? Just

Stacey Franklin: 1:21:45

which, yeah, they're no longer together. But he, he he was like, I insist you use my real estate agent. So she used the agent. I'm not sure how the transaction went down what it was like what she's like, she could be a great agent. I don't know, maybe my client didn't, or my client, my, my, my trainer didn't digest the information that she received on her inspection report. But there was a zinsco panel inside of her house. She has been training me now for like six months and hit like, three weeks ago. She's like, Yeah, the lights. First time homeowner. The lights in my basement and in my kitchen had been out for I don't know, like three months now. What? And she's never home. She's one of those who's a new homeowner and is never home because she's working constantly. So she's one of my favorite humans on the face of the planet. And I was like, Dude, your lights have to work. Your refrigerator isn't functioning. You have to let me please let me get an electrician over there. I'm like, did you get an inspection report? Yeah, I did. But the inspection report is fine. The agent said that everything was fine. I said, so you didn't ask for no, no credits, nothing. So the AHL inspected the house or the inspector did inspector inspected the house. The agent said everything was fine. They didn't ask for any credits didn't do a request for repair that she remembers. Now she's the new homeowners, and most first time buyers forget what happened during the transaction. So it just happens that way. It's normal. So who knows what transpired during that time I could, you know, I could be totally wrong about it. But what is the truth is that when I got to the house with my electrician, he went downstairs, I'm upstairs with her. He went downstairs into this basement and he screams at the stairs. And he goes, Stacy, can you guess what kind of panel panel is down here? I'm like, it's a zinsco. Panel. Right? I've never had a problem with one. Right? You know, you've inspected so many not to say that they don't have problems, but I've never had an issue. So I'm one Yeah, right. So every time you know, every time you've done an inspection for me and the buyer panics, I say we should replace it eventually. Because it does have a recall and there are there are problems with it. That can be problematic. Yeah. But you know, I have never seen one to date have issues because I have never seen one to date have issues, right? So it's just my experience. It doesn't mean it's the truth for everyone. Right, right. So I go downstairs, and he goes come down. You need to see something he pulled out three breakers that were completely melted. Wow. completely melted. And I was like, Oh my God, you're I mean, I don't know what could have happened. But the first thing that comes to my mind is you always could have burned down wire. Yep. You know, and so he replaced them right away we looked at every all the other ones and and I was like dude, you have to replace this panel. Just replace it. Yeah. Like we'll do the breakers now and everything will be functioning but you have to eventually replace this panel. You should do it soon. So, you know and I, I want to bust on that other agent. Be like, Why buy Oh made? At the time she bought the property? I don't know what the cost was, would be now, but at that time, it would be $2,100 to replace that panel. Wow. So, you know, with with labor and, and, and parts and everything that cuz I had I had I've just recently gotten an estimate on replacing another one in a different property so. So I was like, Dude, it's $2,100 You couldn't have gotten her that$2,100 in credit, or giving it to you giving it to her from your paycheck, which you know, me and I probably would have done because I've done it before, you know, but um, and made sure that it got done.

John Laforme: 1:25:41

Right. That's scary that she did just let that go for like three months with no light. Yeah. Don't ever do that homeowners. That's not that scary.

Stacey Franklin: 1:25:49

She was like I was flipping on and off the breakers and the breaker was flipped off. But she had, you know, just still off,

John Laforme: 1:25:56

right on and off. And it was still staying off right when you thought it was on, which means there's a problem, which that's that's what those breakers are known to do. Right? A lot of the old panels that I mentioned, when they have problems, it typically arises out of the breakers themselves. Like they'll be on but they're actually off often actually on. So yeah, dangerous. Yeah. If you're thinking circuits off and you go to touch something, you doing a repair. Yeah. And that's not good.

Stacey Franklin: 1:26:24

The remedy to this would have been if she would have used me as a real estate agent. I'm just kidding. I would have done things differently. No.

John Laforme: 1:26:31

Did you see the inspection report?

Stacey Franklin: 1:26:32

I didn't see it. She didn't have it. Yeah, that doesn't help. Yeah. I mean, who knows what happened to that agent? Probably could have you know, she could have been the greatest agent on the face of the planet. I don't know. Okay, so

John Laforme: 1:26:43

let me clear this out real quick. Because you said something to me, that happens a lot. A lot. If Joe inspects your house, and Susie's, your realtor, get your advice about the house from Joe? Because he's the one that inspected it. So if he says if he tells you everything looks good, then you should, you should if he's qualified, you should be able to take his word for that. But if you're getting the advice from the person who's not qualified to tell you that, right? What are you doing? Well, why did you hire the guy to inspect? Why'd you hire Joe in the first place? If you're getting advice from the person who didn't inspect it? Don't mix that don't mix that up, listen to your inspector, look at his report and read it and make sure you understand what it says if you don't call him and have him clarify? Because that's the that's the word instead. That's the verbiage that counts.

Stacey Franklin: 1:27:36

And I mean, I don't know when I first learned about the panels that you shouldn't have. Right? And the names of them. Not every every new agent. Not not even any old agent would maybe they don't know, maybe they've never heard of the brand. I've heard of the brand. So many times because I've dealt with so many condos. And usually they're in condo learning curve. So like. So, you know, I would understand if maybe she was a newer agent, and she didn't know, right? But but you know, the inspector should also be very clear with the agent, hey, you need to get this you're very clear with me, hey, you need to do this, you need to take a look at this. And you'll follow up with me and call and say hey, did you did you address XY and Z? And I'll either say yes or no.

John Laforme: 1:28:26

Yeah, so it happens a lot. Yeah, so it's talk to your inspector, your realtor is there to help you. But some realtors, they don't. They're not. They're not listening. And they're going to just tell you, Oh, it's good. We could deal with it later. And I've seen those things blow up in their faces. So right, it's cool that you want to listen to your realtor, but get your advice on their spectrum report from the person who inspected the house. That's all I'm saying. Right?

Stacey Franklin: 1:28:52

Because we don't know everything you don't we like to think we do sometimes. Yeah, I like to think I know everything. So I'm just gonna,

John Laforme: 1:29:01

but I don't I know.

Stacey Franklin: 1:29:02

I know. I know. I don't know everything. And we make mistakes, and we overlook things. And it just happens because we're human. Some agents are better than others. You know, in general, right. Some of us are more detail oriented than others. But sometimes there's so much information that will we missed, we missed up. So when it comes to any questions you have about your report. If I can't answer it, I'm gonna say Hey, call the inspector, call him and go over it. He will impress upon you how important it is to handle whatever that issue was.

John Laforme: 1:29:36

Right. Okay, Stacy Franklin, from Pinnacle state properties. You've been a great guest. I loved how you really broke down everything we just talked about. I think a lot of our listeners here I got really good. Get a lot from that. I get a lot from that. I think we taught each other a few things today.

Stacey Franklin: 1:29:56

We did as we do every time we see each other

John Laforme: 1:29:59

right so Oh, I expect to hear from you about more pre listing inspections, you need to push this on your customers, it's very helpful. It's going to make your transaction go a lot smoother. You're

Stacey Franklin: 1:30:10

absolutely, you're absolutely correct. So if your client is willing to do it, which you've done a couple for me, yeah, if your client is willing to do it, do it, get it out of the way, just get the fact you know, it's about getting because a $100 issue, it can be repaired before you, you know, before you open escrow with a buyer and have another inspector come through, can really make that difference between whether the buyer stays or leaves escrow. That's right. So is that some of the smallest things can blow an escrow up?

John Laforme: 1:30:45

Yes. So let me tell you one of those small things tell me avoiding a sewer camera inspection? Right? Okay, we didn't go over that. But we're gonna do it right now. Okay, that's not my mind. The importance of a sewer camera inspection, the sewer camera inspection. For those of you who don't know what that means is a high definition camera gets put into the sewer line between the building and the city connection, which is typically in the street or in an alley behind the house, depending on what neighborhood it's in. Nobody can guess the condition of that pipe. Unless you're Superman and have X ray vision, which I haven't met one of those guys yet know. So the only way to know how to condition of that pipe. And that's what the purpose of the inspection is to know the condition of the pipe, not the age of the pipe? Once again, it's the condition. That's the important part, right? Is it open? Is the pipe open? Is it flowing? Is it pitched properly? Is it holding water? Does it have roots in it? Is it broken? That's what you want to know. Because that is probably the single most expensive thing on a property. If it goes bad, right. And too many times, I'm sure you've probably heard this. Somebody walked away from a house because the sewer was trashed. And it was 30 grand to fix it. Yeah. And it was, you know, not all sewer lines are created equal. Now, a lot of people don't get that. Some homes are very basic, and they just be a straight line from the front of the house out to the street. It's kind of mostly consists of clay if it's original, and there's nothing wrong with clay pipe. But it can have problems can have cracks in it, their roots come through the joints. But the minimum repair, like a spot repair, let's say there's a 12 inch section of pipe that needs to be cut out and replaced. That's got to be at least two grant. Right? So

Stacey Franklin: 1:32:44

and then what and then you have a property that's sitting in the back of a flag lot. Where you have a paved driveway from the front of the street all the way back. And if you don't know what a flag lot is a flag lot is a house that situated behind another house. So let's say that house has a 6000 square foot lot. You're driving, however many square feet back, yep, from the front of the street to get to that house. And then you have your toilets in the back of the house and upstairs and whatever. And then you have your sewer line that comes all the way out to the street. Underneath pavement. Yep. And if you have to replace that entire line, that's an it that's a whole job. That is not just the line that is demo and replace the driveway, the driveway. Yeah, so yeah, it's important

John Laforme: 1:33:34

to shoot that important inspection. And that's why I started doing them five years ago. And if I do 25 houses a month, I'm doing at least 20 sewers. 20 of those houses will have done the sewer line on two good times. And it's just really important. So I don't want to I don't want to end the show this episode without saying that. So another good point for sellers. If you don't have a recent inspection of your line, get one done. It's a few $100 No, the facts maybe just needs to be cleaned. Most people don't ever, ever maintain their sewer lines,

Stacey Franklin: 1:34:11

right. So, I always I always present when I go in to talk to a seller you know, all of the inspection options that they can they can have before they list their property. sewer line. Termite sometimes you get hit with termite Sure, sometimes you don't. But I mean termite can be expensive. And that and the pre listing you know you if you're on if you're on a raised foundation you can't see you're never under your house you don't know if your toilets leaking if you if you have a fastener that's that's not on properly if there's a gas leak under the house, right. The gas line is deteriorating, and we turn the gas off at this last list, this listing that I'm working on, turn it off to do all of our installations and turned it back on. And my plumbers was like I hear hissing. He turned it off because he heard hissing. That's not good. And the whole backyard was filled with gas. We just replaced the line yesterday. Wow. Yeah.

John Laforme: 1:35:11

Yeah, the three main inspections for any house should be General, General home inspection, which is covered covers most systems, and then termite and sewer line. Now, keep in mind, a lot of sellers don't realize that their house doesn't have an adequate cleanup, to even access the sewer line. And that is the biggest

Stacey Franklin: 1:35:38

pain in the ass

John Laforme: 1:35:39

pain in the ass. That's, uh, that's what I was thinking.

Stacey Franklin: 1:35:44

Because let's just be straight with.

John Laforme: 1:35:47

Yeah, because you know, a lot of times on sewer lines, people think, Oh, well, I ordered a sewer line inspection. That means it's going to happen. Yeah, no, it doesn't, it means you ordered it, and the person showing up most likely, so that that you can count on happening. But a lot of times I show up and I'm like, you don't have a clean out anywhere that's accessible. Just because you see a little thing sticking out of the wall this big does not mean we can get a camera in there. Right? I fight with people over this all the time. And it's so frustrating. I had a termite guy. Tell my customer after I just left, that there's no accessible clean out under the house around the house. The roof was way too steep to get on to do it from there safely. So I couldn't get on a plumbing vent. I said, Ma'am, there's no way for me to get into this line. Termite guy shows up after I left tells the Customer Oh, there's a clean out under the house. My phone blew up there. It's insisting. I'm like, can somebody send me a photo of what you're looking at? So they sent me a picture like

Stacey Franklin: 1:36:48

this big.

John Laforme: 1:36:50

The clean out opening would have been good. But it went like that. It went down immediately. It went over and up again. over and down again, down here and that way, and they wanted me to enter that. Oh my god, it had five turns within three feet. And I had to explain to them, it doesn't work like that. No. So they wouldn't take my office. Suddenly my information was useless to them. Because a termite guy who doesn't do sewers? told them there was a cleanup. That shit happens all the time. Yeah. And that was my thing. I've done it to you. That is the worst. That is the worst. So just because you see a cleanup, let the person who's doing the inspections to tell you if this is accessible or not. I'm not here to sell you a cleanup. I don't do repairs. I'm just letting you know I can't get in your line. Yeah, yeah, that really happened. I'll see what they tell the term. I gotta focus on termite. Right, please. It's it wasn't accessible. So anyway, that was a great story. The Halloween story was awesome. Yeah, that was a definitely a horror story. Her she's lucky it didn't catch fire.

Stacey Franklin: 1:38:03

Kids sleep until 11. And she's at work at 6am. You know, like, it's a dangerous situation to be in.

John Laforme: 1:38:13

All right. Well, I want to thank you for being a guest. You've been a great guest and you for having me. How can any listeners that looking for a Realtor with your expertise find you?

Stacey Franklin: 1:38:25

Well, the easiest way to contact me would be on my Instagram. I check my messages all day long. I met Stacy Franklin underscore real estate on Instagram. And you can also check my website out at Stacey Franklin realestate.com.

John Laforme: 1:38:39

All right. Awesome. Thank you so much and have a happy Halloween. Hey, I will be doing what you think. You know what I didn't it wasn't prepared enough. I should have had a pumpkin head right here.

Stacey Franklin: 1:38:51

You should have totally wasn't. I think I have Halloween stuff in the car.

John Laforme: 1:38:58

All right. Thank you Stacy. We'll talk soon.