Tag Archives : Zillow.com

In today’s episode of the St. George Real Estate Morning Drive, Jeremy Larkin and co-host Jesse Poll invite Matt Green, well-known Utah Real Estate Investor, Keller Williams Realty Franchise owner, and all around family man, to talk about a bill that’s ready to pass at the Utah Legislature, HB 121, and how it may improve the home buying and selling process in the Beehive state!

Below is the actual St. George Real Estate Morning Drive show, hosted by St. George Real Estate Agent Jeremy Larkin, word for word! Enjoy and please share if you find it valuable! 

Jeremy Larkin and The Larkin Group @ Keller Williams Realty can be reached by calling 435-767-9821, or emailing sales@gostgeorge.com.

Andy: News radio 94.9, 890, KDXU. It is time for the St. George Real Estate Morning Drive with Jeremy Larkin. Jeremy, how are you, man?
Jeremy: Good morning everybody. Jeremy Larkin here. How am I? I have never been better.
Andy: That is good.
Jeremy: I have maybe been better.
Andy: That is really good.
Jeremy: I have got somebody very special in the studio today. Besides you, Andy. You are special.
Andy: I am special.
Jeremy: You are special. And Jesse is lurking in the shadows today. Right? There he goes. There is his hand. There is his hand. So any of our folks that are watching this on the live feed this this way. Hey, and guys today, just so you know, we are not broadcasting Facebook Live. So if you are listening right now, always remember that this show is available on 94.9FM, 890AM or what I like to do is I just Google the phrase 890 KDXU Livestream. That is the easiest way to just stream it live if you do not want to listen on the radio. 890 KDXU Livestream. I have got, and we are going to talk about a little bit of real estate first, but I have got someone special here. I have got Colby Neilson here.
Colby: Hey, do your thing, man.
Jeremy: What is it like to be back in the studio?
Colby: That means that we got a race coming up. That is all it means to me.
Jeremy: That means we have a race coming up. We are going to be talking about said race. I want to talk about. There are a couple of things I want to talk about today, by the way. I want to talk about the volunteer element.
Colby: Yes.
Jeremy: I want to talk about some history. I want to talk about the bid for the World Championship for 2021. Right?
Colby: All right.
Jeremy: Is that the year?
Colby: Yeah.
Jeremy: Is that the year? So, kind of fun. Gang, so let me run some real estate out of here though. And this will be fun because you can join in the conversation, man. I love it. So we have talked for some time about our instant offers program. I want to actually give some background as to why we are doing an instant offers program. So for all of our listeners out there, if you visit our website, which is Sold in St. George dot com, you will see something that says, and I will just pull it up, and I think it says get an instant offer. Jesse, does that sound right? Something like that?
Jesse: Yep.
Jeremy: Get an instant offer. Okay? Should I what my actual, my own website –
Colby: Yeah, check it out.
Jeremy: — says. Get instant offer. All right. Here is the background. So Zillow is the big national, and Andy, you know you have had your home on the market. You know what this is about right?
Andy: Yep.
Jeremy: Zillow is, just so people understand, it is the most trafficked real estate website in the world.
Andy: Wow.
Jeremy: An interesting side note is that Zillow is only in North America, excuse me, in the United States. So Zillow does not exist in Canada. I went to British Columbia a few years ago, and I was like oh, I wonder what houses are. There is no Zillow. So it is the largest, most heavily trafficked website in the world for real estate, but it is only in the United States. I realize we think that we are the world’s, like we are the biggest, best thing in the world. But there is a big world out there outside of the US. Canada is giant. China is giant. Europe is giant. Okay. So what has happened, guys, is Zillow and a company called Open Door, another company called IBuyer, all these companies are coming in and here is what they would like to do. Do you remember when there was a thing called travel agents?
Colby: Yes, yes I do.
Jeremy: And there still are. And what is funny is a couple years ago I booked a cruise with a travel agent and it cost me nothing over what I paid for a cruise, but the way that it is booked is they get their commissions built in by the company on the backend. It is little bit like selling a home.
Colby: Okay. Right.
Jeremy: My life was ten times easier. She figured all the dates out, all the scheduling out, ran it all for me, and I gave her a credit card and it was fantastic. But a little company called Expedia came along and Travelocity and they changed the whole process. The consumer wants to go online. Right? And so what these companies are doing is they want to eliminate people like me from the process. And to some level, there are some things you do not need me for. Right? Which would be similar to, at some point, they just go we are just going to go all online learning, Colby. Like you have been great. Appreciate you. Thank you for your service. Right?
Colby: Yep.
Jeremy: But here is a Chuck-o-Rama gift card for you and your family, and it is all online now. And the students just want to get it 24/7, when they want to get it. Let me ask you a question because I have got him in the studio. He is not prepped for the conversation. Is there a difference, my friend, between the experience of a student, and there is online high school in Washington County.
Colby: Correct.
Jeremy: What is the difference, toot your own horn for a second, between doing online high school and coming into Mr. Neilson’s classroom? Because there is a difference.
Colby: Well, there is a big difference. Number one, you are getting someone who is sitting with you, showing you how to do, well, I teach math. Showing you how to do just this certain math concept.
Jeremy: Right.
Colby: Okay. With you, speaking back and forth. It is not someone else’s tutorial video that you are trying to watch and figure out. You are getting maybe a handout, some extra practice, something that –
Jeremy: Right.
Colby: — something I can physically give you and watch you work on, and plus, in my class, we have a great time. There is some social interaction –
Jeremy: And by the way, this is huge.
Colby: — that you do not get otherwise.
Jeremy: How many students do you have total? Because you are a math teacher, so they are circulating all day.
Colby: 120, 130 kids.
Jeremy: How many do you know by name?
Colby: All of them.
Jeremy: Let’s just all just have what we call the power of the pause. He said all of them. Right? You know 120 kids by name. How many of us remember our high school teacher, right, middle school teacher? And everyone has a different one. Like some kids who are really drawn to you will not be drawn to, there are other kids that are not drawn to you. Right? They have their other favorite.
Colby: Oh yeah.
Jeremy: I know that is hard for you. I understand. But I know this guy. He is a good friend of mine and has been for decades, but that element. You know them by name. They like going in your class. They like you coming up to their desk and saying hey man, I see you are struggling. Why don’t you stay after school and let’s talk about this. You know their names. A lot of them you probably have like a pretty cool friendship with, like you know what they are doing in sports. Right?
Colby: Oh yeah.
Jeremy: You know what they are doing around the school. Hey, how is the family?
Colby: Well, I was going to say, not only do I know their name, but you learn more about them as the year progresses. Some of them are involved in extracurricular activities, so you see them. You go to the games. You see them. You try and build that rapport with them because they are doing these other things, and you want them to feel comfortable in your class so they will be more willing to accept your –
Jeremy: Let me ask you a question here. Andy, I know you are at least like, you are over 30.
Andy: Barely, barely.
Jeremy: Who is your favorite teacher? Who do you remember? Name a teacher.
Andy: Mr. Bickmore, Mr. Johns, Mrs. Robbins. I have a bunch of them.
Jeremy: Okay. Pause. How many years ago were you in school? Just give it up.
Andy: I graduated high school in 1984.
Jeremy: Okay. Think about this. Class of ’84. My sister Tiffany same age.
Andy: Great year.
Jeremy: Do you see this impact though? Instantly, he listed, he is like naming them off.
Andy: I could have listed ten more.
Jeremy: They impacted your life and here is the funny part. They are just regular people with families trying to figure it out. So let’s bring this back around, and I think you can kind of see where I am going. What is happening with these big, massive real estate engines, like Google is a search engine, so Zillow is an engine. They would like to eliminate the agent from the process. They would like to make it so automated that you go online. You say I want to see this house, and this is what they would ideally like. You show up, you plug a code into your phone, the door unlocks, you walk in, you tour it yourself, you leave. That is what they would like. That is great for them. The issue is the human element is completely removed from what is an insanely emotional process. Right? Trying to decide what your home is worth. Trying to digest the fact that it is worth less than you think it is because virtually every home is worth less than the seller wants it to be worth. Moving your family. Dealing with a death or divorce or a marriage or a new child. Upsizing. Downsizing. Which side of town should we live on? All sorts of contract issues. You sell your house and you think it is all done, and then the buyer, who you thought they were nice people, and I say that with a tone because they are probably nice people, but now they come back with a home inspection list, repair list that says hey Colby, I want you to fix 21 items. And you are like I thought they were good people. What? That is where you agent comes in and says, puts their hands on your shoulders. Let me give you a little massage. Just relax. Okay? They would like to remove the human element from the process because it makes them money. I am all about automation. We are continuing to automate our business in every way we can, but the reason we launched this instant offer program over at Sold in St. George dot com is because they are trying to buy homes now. They not only want to remove the real estate agent from the process, they also want to pull this one. Hey, Andy, do you want to sell your home? It is real easy. Just plug your address in and a few details about your home in this app and we will send you an offer. Well, if you guys would like to have to some fun, google Zillow Consumer Affairs. I saw 1100 reviews. Guess what the average review was from dealing with Zillow as a consumer? One star. One of five. You would have thought three, maybe four.
Andy: Yeah, that is what I would have said.
Jeremy: One star at the Consumer Affairs. This is for the official Consumer Affairs’ website.
Andy: Wow.
Jeremy: Because you are dealing now with this national entity. You are not dealing with human beings. Right? This is like outsourcing all of your kids’ education to a website, and I think there is an element of helpfulness to that. Right?
Colby: Definitely. Yeah, it is helpful to have tutorial videos or whatever. But who do you really ask your questions to? And how quickly can you get your feedback?
Jeremy: Correct. Let me tell you one of the number one complaints I have had speaking to new real estate agents right now is currently in Washington County there is no live class for the real estate exam. It is all online now. I went to Stringham Real Estate School 15 years ago, and I took it all in a classroom, and man, I still remember B. King. That is who it was. B. Carmen. Her name changed. I remember her. She was awesome. And you learn very differently. Yeah, there is no feedback. There is no nothing. So here is what I just want to encourage our listeners to do and then we are going to talk about Ironman. Understand that there is a big massive shift afoot in the world, and when we get so disconnected that we think our best friends are on Facebook, I am going to soapbox for about 60 seconds. You think about how much you interact with people on Facebook versus the last time you called your close friend and said hey, how have you been? It is scary. It is really scary. And as we get disconnected, it will hurt the economy. It will hurt our businesses. It will hurt our kids. It will hurt our families. There is a level of connectivity. So the instant offer program, by the way, is we offer either maximum value or either maximum convenience. And maximum value is we put your home on the open market and we sell it at retail value. Maximum convenience is you have our investment group, who are local. Not Zillow. We walk over. I or Jesse or Jeff or someone comes to your home and we walk through it, and they make you an instant offer, which is definitely going to be below market value because we cannot make sense of buying and selling homes, talk about full disclosure. What am I going to buy your house for 100% of value and sell it for 10% more? 100% is the only possible.
Colby: Yeah, right.
Jeremy: There is no more than 100. Give 110%. There is only 100 available. Right? It is the famous John Wooden story. You talked about that. Where he pulled his team in it and he said guys, I know it looks like you are pretty tired and some of you were probably out with your girlfriends last night or maybe you had a few drinks, and you are thinking Coach, I do not have it all today. I will give 110% tomorrow, and he said there is only 100% ever available. So you cannot make it up tomorrow. Right? So what we are trying to do is keep a human being in the process. If you want to sell your home and you do not want to put it on the market, and you do not want to repair it and you do not want to stage it, and you do not want to show it, and you want to take an instant offer, we have got an investment group that will buy it from you. And it is not Zillow headquarters in Seattle. End of story. Fair enough?
Colby: Fair enough.
Jeremy: Keep teaching. How long are you going to teach for?
Colby: The rest of my life, Jeremy.
Jeremy: I know you are.
Colby: The rest of my life.
Jeremy: I know you are. We are twelve minutes into this. I have done my soapbox.
Colby: It may not always be in a classroom, but always teaching.
Jeremy: I love it, man. So we have Colby Neilson here. Goes by Bags for those of us who know him well. Good friend of mine. You have now been, you have been involved with Ironman, what was the first year you raced Ironman?
Colby: Did I do my race in Arizona in 2005?
Jeremy: It would have been something like that.
Colby: It was right around 2005.
Jeremy: Yeah, down at Tempe. I saw that venue when I was there last week, two weeks ago.
Colby: Or 2008. 2005 or 2008.
Jeremy: Yeah.
Andy: That is a big gap, Bags.
Colby: I did not prep on that information.
Jeremy: No he did not. So he and his brother-in-law –
Colby: It was right about then.
Jeremy: Yeah, and a lot of you guys know Jeff Gardner. Jeff is no longer involved, but he was really involved in Ironman for a while. So these guys used to race Ironman. See, I was, we cycled together, but I never had the courage to actually go do the Ironman race. I do not know. What am I going to say about it?
Colby: You were always invited.
Jeremy: I know I was. Colby has been involved, he was a participant and then you took over as the director of all the volunteer director for Ironman St. George. What, 2010, right?
Colby: When it started. Yeah.
Jeremy: I saw that banner last night with Michael Vice of Austria on it. That first year. Remember when he won that first year?
Colby: Yeah.
Jeremy: That was pretty cool. So tell us about what it means to be the volunteer director. Because we know that he is teaching kids math at Pineview High, but his side job.
Colby: Yeah, so it is busy. What I really have is a good group of captains that are all each over a different area of the event. Right?
Jeremy: Right.
Colby: So you have registration. You have packet stuffing. You have aid stations. You have everything out at the lake and wet suits and gear bags and bikes. There are all kinds of areas that need someone to be in charge.
Jeremy: Think of what is involved. How many athletes will come this year to race? 2000?
Colby: 2000 at the start line. Yeah.
Jeremy: 2000. I love that at the start line. Oh, we do not know what happens thereafter. If you think about the Ironman event, and so a lot of people out there listening do not know a lot about it. As a matter of fact, they not only do not know a lot about it. It just seems like a burden because it shuts down traffic for day. Do you remember, man, if we had Kevin Lewis here, he would give us the numbers. $9-10 million or something like that being brought in off the race to the community?
Colby: Yeah, and you are talking not just that week. People, since that initial year –
Jeremy: Nine years ago.
Colby: — it just generates more and more interest. Right? So now people that have come here and raced are now returning and training and visiting and touring and whatever else they do when they come and visit.
Jeremy: Yeah. This is how we feed our kids.
Colby: They will come work out. They will practice on the course. They will come race and they will come back.
Jeremy: I see them as early as, probably earlier, but typically by February the first reasonable weekend you see Ironman athletes here doing training weekends.
Colby: Oh yeah.
Jeremy: Right. Getting familiar with the course. So it drives, so a lot of people do not know what it is. You are talking about let’s say $8-10 million coming in off this event. Off the event. Annually, they are putting tons of revenue into our economy. The event, of course, let’s walk these people through what they are doing. They are at Sand Hollow Reservoir. They are going to swim 1.2 miles. Right?
Colby: Right.
Jeremy: They are going to get out of that water. We are going to help them strip their wetsuit, one of our 40, 50 volunteers there because it is hard to get your wetsuit off when your hands do not, no longer work because you have been swimming for 1.2 miles and it is cold water. They are going to hop onto their bike damp, and they are going to race, ride how long?
Colby: 56 miles.
Jeremy: 56 miles. Which is from Sand Hollow to where?
Colby: Sand Hollow, it is going to go up and over the Red Hill, out towards Ivins, back up through Snow Canyon, which is –
Jeremy: Up Snow Canyon.
Colby: Up Snow Canyon, right.
Jeremy: Up Snow Canyon. It is a treacherous climb.
Colby: And then once you get to the top, you just coast it on it. All the way back into town.
Jeremy: Yep. And so, cool. So they have already swam 1.2 miles, and they have ridden their bikes 56 miles, and then they are going to run a half marathon.
Colby: Marathon. Right.
Jeremy: 13.1.
Colby: Up the Red Hill and back.
Jeremy: So think about the number of volunteers for all of our listeners out there. It requires so many people to make that happen.
Colby: Definitely.
Jeremy: And to pull it off. And the competitors I have heard regularly saying we think St. George has the best volunteer community ever. Like we have never seen an event come off so clean.
Colby: Oh hands down. You have to realize there are a lot of events that Ironman owns or puts on around the country, and I have a traveled to a few others and worked as a crew guy, and I see what goes on. I see volunteers. I see the work that that certain particular town puts into their efforts, and I look back at what we have, and I am like we have people that really understand what it means to go help out and go bring this thing hear and make it something special.
Jeremy: And it is super community-based. And I will point something out.
Colby: It is not like that in other places.
Jeremy: It not like that in other places.
Colby: No, it is not.
Jeremy: That people that realize this, this is part of, man, it is my show. I can say what I want. Part of the benefit of a really, quite honestly like a pretty religious-type community is you have a lot of service going on. And it does not mean that religious people serve, are better than non-religious people.
Colby: (Indiscernible)
Jeremy: What happens is a lot of these kids are raised doing service. They do not even want to do it. Remember you are a teenager. You are like I have got to go rake leaves for the neighbor? But in this kind of community in Utah and in St. George, what has happened is quite a few thousands and thousands of the residents were raised, against their will at first initially, to serve. Right? And so it has created this mindset that what we do is we go and we serve. It is really normal. Check this out. By the way, do people want to know where these guys go? How about they race in Boulder, CO, China, Calgary, Alberta, Ireland, France. I am just highlighting. Santa Cruz, CA, Imperial Beach, CA, India, Sweden, Coeur d’Alene, ID, and where is the national championship?
Colby: For a (indiscernible)
Jeremy: Yep.
Colby: I think this year it is in France.
Jeremy: It is the World Championship. World Championship.
Colby: World Championship. Yeah.
Jeremy: So the World Championship. Right? Then you have the World Championship, but the North American Pro Championship is St. George.
Colby: Exactly. Yeah.
Jeremy: So the reason I point this out is to impress upon people like Ironman is everywhere. They pick the most beautiful locations on the planet and they are having their North American Pro Championship here.
Colby: Right.
Jeremy: So, let’s talk about volunteers and then let’s briefly touch on trying to be in the World Championship. But we need volunteers.
Colby: Oh yeah, we need many. We need about a couple thousand to make it work like it should.
Jeremy: Yep.
Colby: With enough people so that it is not overly burdening others. Right?
Jeremy: Yep.
Colby: But right now, we are at about 350 that have signed up.
Jeremy: Yep, and we need way more.
Colby: And we are a month away.
Jeremy: And we are a month away. So guys, the race is May 4th, and you can volunteer anywhere from the lake, which you are going to be out there bright and early, like 4 or 5 in the morning early. The race is going to be over over, like the last competitor is coming over the line at what time of day? Downtown.
Colby: Downtown. It will be done by 5.
Jeremy: Okay. I was going to say 4 or 5. So I want to tell people where they can volunteer, and I just want to make my own personal plug because I have been that involved. Visit Ironman St George dot com, Ironman St. George dot com. Is it Ironman St. George dot com?
Colby: Yeah.
Jeremy: Yeah, it is. It is just going to send you over to their page. But you will see a link to volunteer. Go in. Pick any freaking thing that sounds fun to you.
Colby: Yeah, just scroll down and look through it.
Jeremy: Yeah, scroll down. Hey you want to be involved in athlete drug testing? Maybe you want to be involved in athlete registration? How about this? Athlete registration happens on Thursday, Wednesday, Thursday. You get to hang out at Town Square in beautiful weather and meet people from all over the world.
Colby: Yeah.
Jeremy: It is pretty fun. Right?
Colby: Yep.
Jeremy: I am going to make my plug. I was involved in 2010. I was involved in the first five years, and then I kind of went MIA. And I am back this year.
Colby: He is back.
Jeremy: As I was one of volunteer captains. Guess who is back? I am just going to tell you something. If you have got to the St. George Marathon finish line that is the feeling. You go to the St. George Marathon finish line and you start crying. You are like I do not even know these people and I am crying right now. And then you want to race. It is that kind of electricity at the event. And to volunteer, it is just such a blast. Yeah, you get a free t-shirt, but you feel like, you do not feel like, you are part of something that day. And the athletes, the thing that is cool. The average Ironman competitor is they are wealthy. They talk about the demographics. These people, they are doing well for themselves, right, all over the planet financially, and they come here, and they are very, very appreciative. The athletes are high-fiving. They are thanking you. Right?
Colby: Right.
Jeremy: It is kind of an incredible experience.
Colby: It is an incredible experience. A lot of these athletes, you do not know if this is their first time for this type of major endurance event or their fifth time.
Jeremy: Yep.
Colby: But either way, it is a goal. It is a dream of theirs, and we as volunteers, we are helping this dream become a reality. Right?
Jeremy: Yep.
Colby: We are encouraging them. We are offering our services if you are at an aid station or if you are helping them with their bike or whatever, you are a part of this dream of theirs.
Jeremy: Of this, I love this, and you have always said this, man. This is like your great case. Right? The sales pitch to volunteer. And by the way, the benefit of volunteering is you get the incredible prize of feeling really happy. Right? Which is better than any fee. But you do not realize that every athlete that comes to town, they have a story.
Colby: And like American Idol –
Jeremy: This is Jim Smith from Travers City, Michigan, but there is a story.
Colby: Yep.
Jeremy: Every one of them. They do not have to have this crazy life story that they came out of a fire and raced Ironman. They all have a story.
Colby: They all have some pathway that got them here.
Jeremy: Yeah, it is a dream, and a lot of people are just two minutes, perfect, hoping to finish the race. Right? Most of the competitors are not competing. They are finishing. They are completing. I talk about competing versus completing. 2021, this week at Town Square, we had the little pep rally. St. George is bidding. We call it bidding to become the World Championship host in 2021.
Colby: Right. So it is coming back to the North American continent that year, so we are going to try, we did our best. There was a lot of excitement and a lot of fun downtown, just trying to sway them, let them know hey, we have the people that is going to make this work. Which we do.
Jeremy: We do.
Colby: So whether we get it or whether we do not, either way, we have got the folks that make this happen.
Jeremy: Yeah, we have a volunteer community. We have a service community. Guys, please.
Colby: You just need to go sign up and get started.
Jeremy: Visit Ironman St. George dot com or if for whatever reason, if you are just cruising along, just google Ironman St. George.
Colby: Hey, if you have got a group, that is even better because we have, Ironman donations that you can apply for. If you have questions, my email is right there when you go to sign up to volunteer.
Jeremy: So you are saying a service group, like scout troop, a Boy Scout, a Girl Scout troop –
Colby: Yeah, a church group, community groups –
Jeremy: — a church organizations.
Colby: — clubs.
Jeremy: They actually get financial support, right?
Colby: They can, yeah.
Jeremy: They can. So guys, Ironman St. George. Colby Neilson, volunteer director, always love having you, man.
Colby: Always a pleasure.
Jeremy: Visit and sign up to volunteer today. Sign up your office. Sign up your family. Sign up your parish, your ward, whatever you do. Get a group and come on out. May 4th. It is going to be fun. All right. Over and out. Thank you.
Andy: All right. News radio 94.4, 890 KDXU. This has been the St. George Real Estate Morning Drive, Jeremy Larkin, Bags Neilson here, and Jesse behind the scenes.

On this week’s show Jeremy Larkin and Jesse Poll of The Larkin Group at KW Realty discuss Zillow.com. The fact that Zillow is here to stay, consumers (want) to trust them, and how to determine if they’re your friend or foe when buying and selling real estate!

Below is the actual St. George Real Estate Morning Drive show, hosted by St. George Real Estate Agent Jeremy Larkin, word for word! Enjoy and please share if you find it valuable! 

Jeremy Larkin and The Larkin Group @ Keller Williams Realty can be reached by calling 435-767-9821, or emailing sales@gostgeorge.com.

Andy: We are still doing the technical part of things.
Jesse: Yeah, I was having some technical issues here this morning.
Jeremy: We were.
Andy: That is always an issue –
Jesse: All of the above.
Andy: We have got all the, like in this room, if we count our phones, we have like nine computers in this room. There is a laptop. There is like three desktops. We have three phones in the room. I think we are going to be streaming on Facebook Live. All kinds of things. Right, guys?
Jeremy: I actually just hung up with NASA and they have their super computer headed here on an 18-wheeler. So we are going to get that set up shortly, and your mind is really going to be blown.
Andy: Yeah, looking forward to that.
Jeremy: That is not bad, is it? Jesse, can I trust Zillow for my home value? Can we answer that question today?Andy: KDXU news time. 8:35. Welcome to the St. George Real Estate Morning Drive with Jeremy Larkin. We have really just one issue right now and Jeremy Larkin is not in the house yet. I think he is in the house. He is not in the room yet. But we will get things started and start talking about St. George Real Estate. A lot on the mind and what are your thoughts as we get things going early with Jeremy in the other part of the building? You got any ideas for me? He is still working on the technical side of things. Maybe we will keep the music going a little bit longer. If you are in the real estate market, you ought to check in with the Keller Williams team, or the Jeremy Larkin team under the umbrella of Keller Williams Realty, and it is a great time of the year to make that move to maybe your dream house. Or maybe you want to downsize if you are in a situation where perhaps your house is too big. That is kind of where I am at right now. I had raised five kids, but I have got this big old house and only two of the kids are left. So I start thinking about things like downsizing and changing the situation in my household. These are the kind of things that you think about. Dream house. Maybe you want a pool. Maybe you want a pickle ball court in your backyard. Whatever it might be. This is a great time again to contact the Jeremy Larkin Group at Keller Williams Realty. He just made it in the house, so that makes me a lot happier. I do not have to sit here and filibuster a little bit while we wait for Jeremy Larkin to join us. He is here somewhere, and he is looking rather dapper by the way as well. You ready to talk a little bit, guys?
Jesse: Yes, sir. You have got to push play on the other one, too.
Jeremy: Oh my gosh.

Andy: Oh, that is a good question.
Jesse: Yeah, we can.
Jeremy: Yeah, can we?
Jesse: Well, it is actually –
Jeremy: We can answer the question or can we trust Zillow?
Jesse: Well, I do not think you can trust Zillow without doing a lot of homework because they do not know, they do not have access to the real closed data and they do not know what your home looks like or has or anything. I can give you some good examples of that, if you would like.
Jeremy: I would love to hear. No, the listeners want to hear.
Jesse: We just saw a home over in the Legacy the other day, and Zillow says that it is a 4-bedroom, 8-bathroom –
Andy: Eight bathrooms?
Jesse: — so I know for a fact that this home has got three bathrooms.
Jeremy: Ah, the old eight-bathroom home. We know everybody loves that one.
Jesse: So chances are they are giving them probably four grand each for one of those bathrooms, so if they have got five extras, that is what? $20,000 extra that they are getting for their home value or their Zestimate?
Jeremy: Yeah, it is crazy. It is crazy, which is insane, right?
Jesse: Yes.
Jeremy: Which is insane. So I had somebody yesterday reach out to us and they said hey, I want to look at my Zillow home value. What do you think my home is worth in Bountiful? I said is your home 2700 feet? They said yeah, the main floor is 2700 feet. What do you think happened, Jesse? What do you think was missing?
Jesse: Their basement because in the state of Utah it counts basements differently and Zillow cannot track that.
Jeremy: Yeah, imagine that. Imagine that, Andy, you go on to Zillow dot com thinking of hey, I am going to find out what my home’s value is. I am just going to go ahead because I heard that Zillow, I saw these Zillow ads, and the Zillow ads are so lovely. They feature these families that are doing great family things like making pancakes. We saw one. We are going to talk about making unicorn pancakes, and we are going to talk about an instant offer program today. And you go on there thinking well, I will see what Zillow says my home is worth, but here is the problem. Zillow only, if you have a basement, they do not show it.
Jesse: Right.
Jeremy: They do not show it. Jesse, what would that mean to a consumer? Value-wise.
Jesse: Oh quite a bit. Probably half as, so on a basement, you will get about 40% more, less value than you will on your main level, so you may be missing 30-40% in your Zestimate value.
Jeremy: Yeah.
Andy: That is a lot of money.
Jesse: Right.
Jeremy: It is a ton.
Jesse: Right.
Jeremy: It is a ton. All right, guys. We are going to do Facebook Live here.
Jesse: We are getting our technical difficulties situated.
Jeremy: We have got it figured out. We had to reboot the system. So just envision, for our listeners out there, I am Jeremy Larkin, host of the St. George Real Estate Morning Drive, and I drove and it was morning and it is beautiful out there. But you are talking about you could be missing 50 to 100 grand.
Jesse: You could. Definitely.
Jeremy: Right?
Jeremy: And vice-a versa. It could be over. For a good instance is that bathroom. Their Zestimate is probably is $30,000 over what it should be.
Jeremy: Yeah. Yeah.
Jesse: What it would sell for in the market.
Jeremy: Absolutely. This is an issue, and we just went Facebook Live, so if you want to watch this morning on Facebook, Facebook dot com slash St. George Experts. Facebook dot com slash St. George Experts. Check it out. Actually, you know what? I lied. We are actually Facebook dot com slash Jeremy Larkin.
Jesse: It is on your personal page.
Jeremy: Yeah, I apologize. Facebook dot com slash Jeremy Larkin. We want to answer some of the most typically asked questions that we see in real estate, and the first one is can I trust Zillow for my home value? Now, Zillow is up to something else, Jesse, which is their Instant Offer program. What are they doing?
Jesse: They are going in to markets, and they will actually give you an offer for your home. It is right there. Hang in there. So they will give you an offer for your home and buy it.
Andy: Zillow will?
Jesse: Yeah, they will.
Andy: Really?
Jesse: And then they will turn around and sell it for market value. So that is a good thing to keep in mind that they are actually going to turn around and sell it so that the chances that you are getting market value for that home are slim and one.
Jeremy: Yeah, they are slim and none, not slim to none. Thank you. So there is a video that I watched yesterday. I guess it was released to YouTube. Zillow dot com slash offers, and here is the fun part. Here is the great part. So many real estate agents love to hate Zillow. They love to hate Zillow because Zillow, of course, is trying to take the real estate agent out of the process very subtly. So instead of running from it, we are just going to talk about it on the program this morning. So Zillow dot com slash offers, if you would like to see what that looks like. People are going to find it anyway.
Andy: Grab the bull by the horns, right, Jeremy?
Jeremy: Yeah, here is the issue. Zillow is going to make you an offer, an instant offer, online, without ever having seen your home. The offer will be subject then to them sending in a real estate professional appraiser inspector and deciding what they really want to pay for it. Okay? So first of all, Andy, if they come in and offer your $400,000 for your home it does not mean they are buying your home.
Andy: Right.
Jeremy: Right. There will be tons of fine print that says oh, that is subject to this. So here is the fun part. We saw that Zillow was doing it. What do you think we started doing? We said we have got an instant offer program. And the reality is we have an instant offer program. So if you visit Sold in St. George dot com, Sold in St. George dot com, you will see a big old button that says instant offer.
Jesse: Right.
Jeremy: Now here is one of the challenges. So Zillow is doing this. Who else is doing that? IBuyer?
Jesse: IBuyer. Purple Door.
Jeremy: Purple door. So here is what is happening. They are coming in. They are making an offer, and then they are charging a buyer’s premium of some kind which is like 3-5% of the purchase price. Right? There is no commission, air quotes.
Jesse: Yep.
Jeremy: Good morning all of our Facebook Live viewers. If you have got questions, we want you to ask them. But they are going in, hey, Andy you should vote for us for Best of Southern Utah. Right there. It is right on your screen. Just two clicks, man. Two clicks.
Andy: I have got to do it now. Yep.
Jeremy: So I was just watching it with Best of Southern Utah. So they come in and they make an offer sight unseen, which is subject to them actually inspecting it and deciding if they want to buy it. And then they charge this strange fee, this strange buyer premium fee, which is just wacked out. Right? So the next thing you know you think are getting 400, but the reality is you are actually getting 360. Let’s flip this on its head. We can bring a local investor in right now from St. George who will make an offer to buy your property, close in seven days, cash, with no strange strings attached. Really simple. They will buy your home. It will sell for blank. You will get blank if they buy it cash. Or we can put it on the market, distribute this thing to every single real estate agent on the planet. Zillow dot com included, smile and a wink. Trulia dot com. Homes dot com. Realtor dot com, all these websites, and we can sell it at market. By they way, in most cases, you will get more selling your home at market. But here is what they do on the Zillow offer ad. They show this dad in the kitchen, and he is really having a good time. He is making pancakes. And then you see he is trying to make a shaped pancake, and it says, excuse me, making unicorn pancakes is hard. And the music plays. But you know what is easy? Selling your home. And he is sitting there and bing, bing, bing, bing. His phone bings, and he is in his apron and he is talking to his child and he looks over and it says you have an offer from Zillow. 365. He goes oh. I hope our listeners can see. Do you see the face? It is the raised eyebrow look. Like hmmm, well that is interesting. Let me finish making these pancakes. So easy. Like hey, just pack up your belongings and they will be here tomorrow. But that is not real. That is actually not real. You have to understand that. So we want to go straight to our consumers here in Washington County and say look, if you want an instant offer, we will make you an instant offer.
Jesse: Right.
Jeremy: Literally right now. We have an investment group who will purchase your home cash. Let’s talk pros and cons. So the pros are you sell your home in seven days, if you want to sell it in seven days. You could sell it in 45 or 90.
Jesse: Right.
Jeremy: The investors are real flexible that way. But if you wanted to be out in seven days, if all the boxes are checked and things work out, then it could close in seven days cash. It is a cash deal. It is not contingent on an appraisal. It is not contingent on a loan. Right? And you do not have to prepare. You do not have to stage. You do not have to make beds. All those things. Now here is the flip side. That is what Zillow is trying to get people to do. Hey, look how easy it is. But see the difference is we are not going to pitch to you that it is just so much easier that you should do it. No, no, no, no.
Jesse: Well, in any part of our life, convenience comes with a cost. It always will.
Jeremy: Right. Right.
Jesse: It always will.
Jeremy: Right. So we would not propose to you that you should be doing this because it is easy. You should be doing this because for some reason it makes sense that you have got to get out of there fast.
Jesse: Yeah.
Jeremy: Otherwise, we will take your home. We will put it on the market. You will have to do some work. We will require you to do some work because you are going to say to me I want the most money for my home.
Jesse: Yep.
Jeremy: And I am going to say well, if you want the most money, then you have to do the most prep work –
Jesse: Yes.
Jeremy: — which we are going to guide you. We are going to hold your hand. We are going to walk you down the road. We are going to schedule all the showings with you. Yeah, you are going to need to make the beds. You are going to need to close the toilet lid. All that kind of jazz. If you have got dirty clothes on the floor, you had better just kick them under the bed. I do not know what to tell you. Those things are going to have to happen, and it is going to be a nightmare in some ways, but you probably will not be sad if you get the money at closing.
Jesse: Right.
Jeremy: So just be aware. Just be aware that these groups, Zillow is a big, massive entity. It is a behemoth, and they are a company that is actually running no profit. So it is one of these strange Wall Street things. They are running no profit, but they are multi-billion-dollar corporation, and their goal is to set themselves up as kind of the replacement to the real estate agent, and eventually just have the whole entire thing. So look, people are going to go there. They are going to go to Zillow dot com, look for a Zestimate. Here is what I would say. Go get your Zestimate at Zillow dot com, and then call us and say I got a Zestimate. Can you please produce a courtesy, right, free of charge market analysis for my property, and let me know what you believe it will sell for on the open market? And then we do that and then you have the real information. Then you can compare the Zillow Zestimate against our information. And if you are paying close attention you will notice that they skipped your basement. Right? So kind of crazy. I just think that people need to be aware of that. That we are not trying to get people off of there. They are on there. Good grief.
Jesse: Well, you are never going to get them off of there.
Jeremy: 20% of our clients came to us last year from Zillow. Right? Wasn’t it 20%?
Jesse: Yes.
Jeremy: 20% of our clients actually contact us through Zillow. Hey, it is what it is. But buyer beware. Right. This instant offer, the Zillow dot com slash offers thing, you are dealing with a corporation. You could just be dealing with someone right here and get all of your options. Right? And of course, their goal is it seems so easy. You do not even call an agent. You just go oh man, this seems easy. I was making unicorn pancakes for my child, and I got an offer on my phone. I should just get out of here. Right? The rest, as they say, is history. If you would like to see what we are doing with Instant Offers, visit Sold in St. George dot com slash or just Sold in St. George dot com. The Instant Offer button will hit you in the face. Have you voted for Best of Southern Utah today, Jesse?
Jesse: Not yet.
Jeremy: Andy did.
Andy: I just did.
Jesse: Because you have to wait 24 hours.
Jeremy: No, you do not have to wait 24 hours.
Jesse: Oh yeah. It will not let me do it unless it is the next 24 hours.
Jeremy: Oh no.
Andy: So he voted yesterday is what he is saying.
Jeremy: It should not be 24 hours. It should just be 12:01am. I do not know.
Jesse: Oh really?
Jeremy: Yeah.
Jesse: Because the other day it would not let me because I had just voted at like ten o’clock the night before.
Jeremy: Oh just come back once per day. That is what they tell me. I just voted. Folks, visit, if you visit the Best of Southern Utah, we are, over at the Larkin Group, our real estate team, we are aiming to win that title. Some of you saw a Facebook video I posted last week. It was me with my high school yearbook.
Jesse: I was telling my wife this morning that, because she asked me if I could do a Miami Vice pose, and I told her, you know I was voted the most likely to be the next Don Johnson.
Jeremy: Dude. I so believe it.
Jesse: That is the only title I ever got.
Jeremy: I so believe it. At every level I believe it. But if you visit Sold in St. George dot com, we made it easy. You can vote for us right through that page, and yes, cast a vote. It is Jeremy Larkin for Best Realtor and Larkin Group for Best Real Estate team. I have the very best people in Washington County working with me, and there you have it. Whose phone is buzzing?
Jesse: Yours probably.
Jeremy: I do not know. That is kind of weird. Some thing is buzzing. It is in my ears.
Andy: Not mine.
Jeremy: Man, this is weird. All right, Jesse. Should we talk about a couple other questions that these guys are, that these folks out there are asking?
Jesse: We can, but I am going to depend on you because my laptop died.
Jeremy: Did it die?
Jesse: Yeah.
Jeremy: Oh man. So this is going to be really good. So we talked about answering the best questions, the questions here in Southern Utah that people have been asking. These questions from our 2019 Parade of Homes survey. And many of you will remember that we created a survey and asked folks questions about the market and just to find out what they were doing and then we turned around and we had about 140 people respond to our survey, maybe 150. Okay, what about, Jesse, are there good options for young couples who just graduated college? I am going to qualify that because it does not have to be just graduated college, but let’s call it young couples, just graduated college. Let’s guess that these are couples that are in their like 22-25 years old range. Okay? Are there good options? Is buying a house a good idea at this stage in life? What do you think?
Jesse: I think it is because you can step into a starter home and start building equity, start building your life, and it will help you think differently. It really does. The home ownership is almost like the next step in life. It is like having a kid. It just changes your life.
Jeremy: Is there any reason, and we will back into this, are there good options? Is there any reason that they wouldn’t buy a home at this stage in their life? What would be good reasons to not purchase a home at early 20’s, graduated from college?
Jesse: If you are not really sure you are going to be here say two years –
Jeremy: Yes.
Jesse: — then it does not make sense at all because if you end up having to sell that you will end up possibly paying capital gains and that could hurt you.
Jeremy: Bingo. Yeah. Absolutely, so a lot of these couples, they are not permanent here.
Jesse: It just depends on what are you doing.
Jeremy: Yeah, at least two years, and Jesse says at least two years because if you stay in a home, sell a home less than 24 months after you purchase it, you are going to be paying what is called capital gains taxes.
Jesse: And there is no way around that.
Jeremy: No. There is no way around it at all. But let’s take this a step further. How long should people really be in their home? Like if we want to wait out a real estate cycle, what are you thinking?
Jesse: Five to ten years.
Jeremy: Okay.
Jesse: Because every cycle for the last what, 70 years has been up and down every ten years. Five up, five down.
Jeremy: Absolutely.
Jesse: Five up, five down.
Jeremy: Absolutely. There is no question. Right?
Jesse: But let’s kind of hit on that. So with that said, we are probably in the height of a market, and does that really mean that they wait? I do not know that it does. If it makes sense to buy a home.
Jeremy: Okay, let’s pretend that I am young couple. Okay?
Jesse: Okay.
Jeremy: Just graduated from college. Maybe have a baby or two, maybe do not have any.
Jesse: Okay.
Jeremy: I buy a home, but there is a concern that in the next two to three years that my wife, let’s say, or if somebody says their husband, one of us might get a nursing position in Salt Lake City, and we might leave.
Jesse: Okay.
Jeremy: But we really want to own a home right now. So what is going to happen when we go to leave? Do we have to sell it?
Jesse: No, you could actually make sure that you buy one where you could possibly rent it.
Jeremy: He is following my cues real nice.
Jesse: Okay, so in that case, and as long as you have lived in a home the last two of five years, it is not technically an investment property –
Jeremy: Right.
Jesse: — so you could still wait out a market and sell it say five years from now and be safe.
Jeremy: So you are saying my monthly mortgage payment is $1400 a month. I could theoretically rent that home for $1400 a month. Or fifteen.
Jesse: You would have to check on that, but possibly yes.
Jeremy: You would want to do some research.
Jesse: You can either definitely offset the rent or get all of the mortgage paid with the rent. That is a good possibility, but I would make sure that you prepare, think about that first.
Jeremy: Right.
Jesse: Because you do not want to have to have the money in the bank or –
Jeremy: What are options though? For these young people, what are the options? And for my team out there who are watching and listening, what are the options?
Jesse: There are plenty of options, but you really have to do your homework and you have to be quick on the draw. Because a young couple is probably going to be under $300,000.
Jeremy: And maybe under?
Jesse: Under 250, which is really a tough market still even though we are getting more inventory. My biased opinion is you have to have a good agent that has feet on the ground for you and is really looking because the homes that are the best value that are the right homes are selling so fast you do not see them.
Jeremy: They are gone.
Jesse: Yeah.
Jeremy: They are gone. So a couple of things. So there are some options.
Jesse: There are.
Jeremy: But, Jesse, I can only afford a $2500 car. There are no options for me. There are.
Jesse: There are.
Jeremy: It is just I had better set my expectations –
Jesse: Yeah, look where the expectations are.
Jeremy: And this is the same thing. And where I am going with this, right, Andy, do you have adult children? How old is your youngest?
Andy: My youngest is 15. My oldest is 27.
Jeremy: Are they homeowners?
Andy: My oldest is, yes.
Jeremy: The reason I ask you that is you have kids that you could counsel. I do not quite have a child buying a home yet. But do you think that the expectations of young people today, because of the wealth that has been enjoyed the last 30 years are different than the young people 30 years ago?
Andy: Yeah, I think so. We did not dream of buying a home at 21 years old. There is no way.
Jeremy: And the reason I say this is by the way there has been such a beating up of millennials and Gen Y and this, that, and the other. These kids are terrible. Here is the deal. We are all just a product of our upbringing. So these kids do not even know what it was like because we did not have the internet. Well, of course, they do not know. There is no reason to assault people because they grew up when they did. Just the reality is that there is so much wealth right now. Right? And when you were 21 years old, it was like man, if people could get into a 1000 square foot, two-bedroom, no bath, young and married, especially my parents, who are older, who are 78, for them to own an 800-square-foot something was like a dream.
Jesse: Right.
Jeremy: Yet what is the perception now, Jesse? I drive down there to Little Valley and what do I want?
Jesse: You want that $400,000 house.
Jeremy: I want a $400,000 home.
Jesse: And also the perception a lot of times is I will just wait for the market to come back down.
Jeremy: Yeah. Yeah.
Jesse: But what they do not think about is when that market comes back down, it most likely will be interest-rate driven. That $400,000 house that probably is not going to go down by $100,000.
Jeremy: No.
Jesse: We are not going to see a crash.
Jeremy: That is not happening right now.
Jesse: But that $375,000 house is now more like a $425,000 house because the interest rate has just went up.
Jeremy: Yeah.
Jesse: So have you shot yourself in the foot by not really thinking that through?
Jeremy: Yes.
Jesse: I think that is what we are going to see.
Jeremy: Keith asked a question. Let’s just segue there. Are home prices up right now in St. George or has higher interest rates stopped any increase in prices? Well
Jesse: They are still up.
Jeremy: Yeah, they are still up. They are still up. Are they going up? No. They are not currently going up in Washington County. Maybe in a pocket here or there. I just listed a Coral Springs condo, which is going to be kind of interesting. We will be listing it for $309,900.
Jesse: Nice.
Jeremy: Interestingly, there are three that just closed at 290, 295, and there are two under contract above 300.
Jesse: That is crazy because you know three years ago when we talked to him –
Jeremy: Yes.
Jesse: — that was 250.
Jeremy: 250.
Jesse: Holy moly.
Jeremy: So here is a pocket and the pocket is this. They are selling homes, like they are vacation rentals. Remember we talked about nightly, weekly rentals. They can be a vacation rental. Well, they are selling Coral Springs for say $300,000, 310. Across the street, literally across the street, Cole West is building new vacation rentals for 500.
Jesse: Four to five hundred. Yeah.
Jeremy: So, what you have is a little micro-pocket there where the buyers look at them and go oh, well, gosh, I would love to buy a $500,000 vacation rental and then they would walk across the street and say I guess I will buy one that was built in 2007.
Jesse: Yeah.
Jeremy: And 2007, it is the big rock fireplaces and the dark trim and the
Jesse: They are pretty cool.
Jeremy: — dark doors. Yeah, they are really cool. It is just a different style, and so some folks just say I will just take that style and I will paint it. Right? So folks, if you have not done so yet, we would ask please if you will vote for us. Sold in St. George dot com and cast your vote. That will pop up. Vote for the Larkin Group. Jeremy Larkin. Best in Southern Utah. Jesse, thanks for being on and handling things as we were having techno difficulties.
Jesse: Sorry for the technical difficulties.
Jeremy: We got it, man. We are off to the races. Have a great week.
Andy: Thanks, guys.

If you prefer to view and comment on Facebook vs. the YouTube video above, click here: Facebook Live.

Below is the actual St. George Real Estate Morning Drive show, hosted by St. George Real Estate Agent Jeremy Larkin, word for word! Enjoy and please share if you find it valuable! 

Jeremy Larkin and The Larkin Group @ Keller Williams Realty can be reached by calling 435-767-9821, or emailing sales@gostgeorge.com. 

Andy: News radio 94.9, 890 KDXU. Good morning to you. Tell me this guy has the coolest music in the biz right here. It is Jeremy Larkin. I did not even want to turn it down. You have got Jeremy Larkin, St. George Real Estate travel show, and I know Jeremy is trying to get all is tech set up and everything over there. Are you ready, Jeremy?
Jeremy: I loved how you stuttered there. You had a hard time.
Andy: Well, it has been a weird kind of –
Jeremy: I do not know what else to say about it, Andy. Let’s just name the elephant in the room. Right?
Andy: It has been a weird kind of day. You look outside and our red rocks are covered in white snow. I know you had issues this morning with the two-hour delayed start for school.
Jeremy: Yeah, this threw the kids’ schedule off a little bit this morning. No one in this room has a child going to school except for me.
Michelle: That is true.
Jeremy: And there are a whole bunch of us in this room. There are five people in this room. You know what is amazing?
Andy: I have two by the way.
Jeremy: Oh you do have two high schoolers?
Andy: Yes.
Jeremy: Okay. So you do.
Andy: Yes.
Jeremy: That is nice. That is good. So for them, it is cool. They are like I have got to sleep in and I will just drive to school. I have two boys that are going to school at odd hours. So normally the one is going either at 6:55 at the bus stop or he is being delivered at 7:30, and then the other goes at 8:15. So with the radio show and then a meeting at 9:30, I am finagling this kind of thing. It is being finagled as they say.
Andy: That is a good work.
Jeremy: Really, it is. It is being finagled. Today, Andy? Whoops, I dropped my microphone. I am going to invite you to lend that microphone to these guys today because we are going to have three of us on the show today.
Andy: Okay. Okay.
Jeremy: I have got some incredible guests in the studio. Andy Griffin is almost a guest because he is brand new. I have got Chantry Abbot with Guild Mortgage, on the air with us. One of our great friends, incredible home mortgage lender. And I have got, well, why don’t you introduce yourself, Michelle.
Michelle: Hey, Michelle Evans with the Larkin Group. Glad to be here.
Jeremy: I like it.
Michelle: Glad to get here safe and sound in all the slush.
Jeremy: It is kind of slushy out there. It was 33, I think, all night long.
Michelle: Oh perfect. One degree.
Jeremy: And I think that is why school did not get cancelled. So the kids can blame one degree. Because I think at 32 degrees, you would have had some really extra nasty roads and it would have been different. Right?
Michelle: Yeah, I was surprised that they were all right. They are slushy, but it is doable.
Andy: Yeah.
Jeremy: Chant, what do you got over there?
Chantry: See this kid is making a snowman. Kind of cool, right?
Jeremy: Isn’t this amazing?
Chantry: Bluff Street Park.
Jeremy: Yeah, it is absolutely incredible. We are at the Cherry Creek Studios on North Bluff Street, which is on the west side of Bluff, up on a hill. And those of us watching our live feed, we are on Facebook dot com slash Jeremy Larkin. Or we are on YouTube Live which is YouTube dot com slash Go St. George TV. But from here we see everything. Like we see everything.
Michelle: It is a great view.
Jeremy: It is incredible. It is amazing. So we are looking out at Bluff Street Park, and the famed snowstorm of 2013, we could not get up this hill, and last night they were forecasting five inches. I would be shocked if we even got two inches. I do not know.
Michelle: Yeah.
Jeremy: Chantry, what did you get at your house? Maybe an inch?
Chantry: Yeah. But I think there was more in like Santa Clara. I saw some folks this morning that got quite a bit.
Jeremy: Where it is higher.
Chantry: It was pretty hard.
Jeremy: Yeah. I went up to the Ledges last night at 8:30, eight o’clock, maybe to take my kids to a little get together and it was like a full-scale, winter, just a blizzard on the way up to the Ledges. It was incredible. And there was this fog later between here and the Ledges.
Michelle: Yeah.
Jeremy: So then you were going up and then it was snowing and you could not see, and it was wacky. So anyway, gang, look, clearly everyone knows it is snowing outside, and all of our friends on Facebook are going to make sure that we know that. Are they not? Everyone is going to do that today. So we are going to have a fun discussion. I do not know what Jesse has got going on. He is over there. What do you have going on over there? What is that? My phone died? I do not know, man. Who knows? So we are running Facebook Live. We are going to talk today about what realtors and lenders actually get paid for. Is that fair?
Michelle: That sounds good.
Jeremy: So Chantry has been with us for a really long time. How many years? A decade?
Chantry: I remember working with you back when you were starting to take over all the foreclosures. So that was probably –
Jeremy: 2010.
Chantry: So let’s say 2010, 2009 or 10.
Jeremy: 2010.
Chantry: I am tangled with my coat here.
Jeremy: So there you go. I do not know about this phone. So it is funny, guys. We are running a Facebook Live, and for whatever reason, it just died on us. I hope we are still live, but I think we are still going to, we are good to go. We are good to go. So 2009, 2010, you came into our world. Right? And since that time, have you ever been paid a salary to close mortgages?
Chantry: I have not.
Jeremy: Right. Michelle, how long have you been in the real estate business?
Michelle: Going on ten years.
Jeremy: Ten years. Have you ever been paid a salary to sell real estate?
Michelle: Never.
Jeremy: No, so we only get paid, right, gang, when the deal closes. That is the only way to describe it.
Chantry: Yep.
Jeremy: Right. And so Michelle and I were in this discussion I think yesterday talking about this dynamic that folks perceive, so this is the perception. So the perception is like Michelle goes out and shows homes and that is where she is doing the work. So the real work she is doing is showing people homes. Like find me a home. Correct?
Michelle: Right. It is all in the finding.
Jeremy: Yeah, it is in the finding. And the perception of course, is that that is where it is. That is where the pay –
Michelle: The value (indiscernible) –
Jeremy: Where the value is.
Michelle: Yes, to open the door.
Jeremy: It is to open the door, and at the end of the day, let’s all be frank with ourselves. What hourly rate could we pay someone to open doors? Could we pay someone minimum wage?
Michelle: We sure could.
Chantry: Sure.
Jeremy: Yeah, what is minimum wage anymore?
Chantry: Seven-fifty or something. Right?
Jeremy: Yeah, $7.50 a hour. We could theoretically pay someone $7.50 to open doors. And the issue is that for us in the real estate business, the real work, the real work especially if you are buying a home, right, begins when Michelle?
Michelle: When it goes under contract.
Jeremy: Right. So, what do you mean by under contract?
Michelle: Well, and putting it under contract, too. So it is the negotiation of getting it under contract, and particularly in the last few years where it has been a seller’s market, so you have really got to know your stuff to be able to win that contract for your buyer.
Jeremy: Yeah, absolutely. Right? So the work for the real estate agent happens we, like when it goes under contract, and of course, what Michelle is saying is when we get into the negotiation for the contract. Right?
Michelle: Right.
Jeremy: That is the issue. That is the issue.
Michelle: Yes.
Jeremy: You told me a cool story, and Chant, I am going to have you chime in here momentarily. You bought a home here how long ago?
Michelle: Yeah, back in ’05.
Jeremy: Okay, and you were not even an agent at the time.
Michelle: No.
Jeremy: Of course.
Michelle: I was teaching out at Tuacahn High School and I used Will Potter, who is now our competitor.
Jeremy: Yeah.
Michelle: He was great. He did a great job.
Jeremy: Great guy in town.
Michelle: We had three days to find a home. He blocked that out for us. We looked at 32 homes. I just want to say, so sorry, Will. I am just going to apologize publicly for doing that to you.
Jeremy: 32 homes. That is ten a day. That is a lot of homes.
Michelle: Oh my gosh, we ran the guy ragged. And ironically, we went back and bought the very first home that we saw. Anyway, and then I was teaching out at Tuacahn High School and he called me and he said when is your lunch hour? I said well it is from 12-1 or whatever it was, and he said I need to come out and have you sign this addendum. I said well you do not have to do it then. You can do it later or whatever. I had no perception that we have legal confines, legal deadlines that, he said, no, I need to have you sign this by five o’clock. I was like wow. Okay.
Jeremy: Hey, come on, you do not have to do that. It is fine.
Michelle: Like it is okay. I was trying to be so nice to the guy. Clueless. And what is funny is that I had bought four homes prior to that. So I think a lot of times agents think oh well, they have been around the block. They have bought a home or two before. And granted, I was probably not as smart as most about it. But you just do not realize what is the process once it is under contract? And I think that is probably some of the pushback of millennials. Well, I can find a house online.
Jeremy: Correct.
Michelle: And we are like right. That is just getting us into the game.
Chantry: And you probably will find it online right?
Michelle: Yeah.
Chantry: No matter how many –
Jeremy: 95% likelihood, guys.
Chantry: And no matter how much somebody tells you what they want –
Jeremy: 95% likelihood.
Chantry: They know what they want. Right?
Michelle: Yeah.
Chantry: They cannot really relay it. So look online. That is just the beginning. That is the easy part.
Michelle: Yeah, yeah. That is the fun part.
Chantry: Jeremy, when did you get in the business?
Jeremy: 2005.
Chantry: That was probably right after they had the books. Do you remember the books?
Jeremy: The books were obviously previous to my time.
Chantry: Not by far though, right?
Jeremy: I do not think by far.
Chantry: Probably late 90s, early 2000s.
Jeremy: What was the MLS called at that time? The Multiple Listing Service. It was called –
Chantry: I do not know.
Jeremy: Oh, what was it? It was this weird –
Michelle: I do not know.
Chantry: So those you that do not know, was it once a month, once a month the Board of Realtors would print out a book with a page for every single listing that was out there. So if there were 500 listings, there were would be 500 pages that would have property for sale.
Jeremy: Right.
Chantry: There was not an internet so the buyers could not go find the homes. So they really did need to sit down with an agent and flip through this book and try to figure it all this out and which ones were sold and which ones were not.
Michelle: Right.
Chantry: Now with the internet you find a house on the internet.
Michelle: Right.
Chantry: So anyone can do that.
Michelle: And the contract was so much less back then. So it really was, their perception was correct.
Jeremy: Yeah, we have added five more pages of contract paperwork.
Michelle: It really was finding the house. The weight was more on that.
Jeremy: Right.
Michelle: And much less with the contract. Now it has flipped. Now it is reversed.
Jeremy: Well, and let’s understand how buyers, let’s hit that door. These guys are exceptionally loud down the hall, aren’t they? Let’s remember how a buyer finds a home. Right? And so this is really good. If you are a home seller, I hope you will really listen really closely to this today. So what will happen is someone will put their home on the market, and they will be like if I can just broadcast this enough times, if I can just be in everybody’s face long enough, we will find a buyer. Right? But how do buyers, in fact, find the home they want to buy?
Michelle: Almost always online.
Jeremy: But how? When I say how, how does a buyer find a home? Do they go hey, a realtor called me and said they have the home for me?
Michelle: Oh, no never. They are out on the home websites. They are out looking. They are searching themselves. They can do it online.
Chantry: So wouldn’t you say really the only accurate, there are others. Yeah, we talk about Zillow and stuff, but only one that is truly live, real-time accurate is probably the Multiple Listing Service that you have to get by –
Jeremy: Yeah.
Michelle: Primary source. That feeds all those websites.
Chantry: — through a real estate agent.
Jeremy: Yeah, so let’s think about this. Chantry, let’s say that you want to buy a home today. What kind of home would you want to buy? Let’s just have some fun here.
Chantry: If I were to buy a house today?
Jeremy: If you were to buy a house today, what would it be?
Chantry: Let’s buy a million-dollar house in Green Springs.
Jeremy: And what would be a couple basic criteria that you –
Chantry: Really nice swimming pool, maybe a game room in the basement.
Jeremy: Okay.
Chantry: Four or five bedrooms, maybe a big casita. Kind of know we are dreaming. Right?
Jeremy: Okay. No, we are dreaming. Okay. Beautiful. So what you would do, where would you go to start looking?
Chantry: Well, me, knowing what I know, I would call a real estate friend, one of you guys, and say hey, this is what I am looking for. Set me up on a search.
Jeremy: Yeah, so two things that actually happen. Right? Number one, you call an agent and say set me up on a search. Tell me if you find anything. And then number two, you and your wife at eleven o’clock at night would be on a computer –
Chantry: Yep. Michelle said –
Jeremy: — or on an app searching. And you would be like Zillow dot com. Show me every home that is four bedrooms, three bathrooms, 3100 square feet or bigger, in the Green Springs area. I want a pool. It needs to be under a million dollars, and here is what would happen. You would actually burn yourself out looking, obsessing, you would obsess. Let me explain. This is really good. Jesse, just yell. Am I accurate with how buyers search for homes?
Jesse: Oh yeah.
Jeremy: They will drive their agent crazy searching. Hey, I saw this new one. I saw this new one. Did you see you the new one? Hey, what did you do this weekend? Well, actually we know that we are working with you, but we drove around, and we went in 27 open houses because we figured that somehow what we wanted you were not showing to us. But we could not find anything. And then we went to Craigslist and then we went to KSL dot com and we went to Zillow dot com, and then we came back around. They will literally drive themselves sick and they will get to this point of fatigue where they are like I do not even think I can look at another home. So what I always remind sellers is that if your home is a great home priced in a proper way, will buyers find it, yes or no?
Michelle: Absolutely.
Jeremy: Instantaneously.
Michelle: Many times over.
Jeremy: Yeah. So here is the other thing that sellers do not realize. Is it the buyer that is overlooking your home? Probably overlooked it like 30 times. Here is why. They tried KSL. They saw it there. They went to Zillow. They saw it there. They figured maybe realtor dot com would have it. They saw it there. They are getting listings emailed to them from five different agents because bless our hearts, that is what we do. We are consumers. So we go around and we see five different real estate signs. We call all of them, and all the agents being agents the way we are, hey Michelle, thanks for calling. Hey, how about we set you up on a home search. We will send you all the new listings in the morning. Wouldn’t that be great?
Michelle: Oh yeah.
Jeremy: Chantry is smiling because that is exactly what we do. I will just get you what you want in the time you want. Won’t that be great? There is a real estate script. They are getting listings from 5 to 10 agents based on their criteria. Are they seeing the home, yes or no?
Chantry: Absolutely.
Jeremy: They have overlooked your home so many times. Actually, you would be offended at how many times they looked at it and said no. We have seen it. No. Right? So we are having this interesting conversation here today about understanding the consumer’s mindset. Right?
Michelle: Right.
Jeremy: So the consumer’s mindset is number one, from the seller’s perspective, well, maybe there is someone out there who does not know about my home. Trust me, everyone knows about your home that is looking for a home, especially if you hired a good agent.
Michelle: And when they come in for a consultation and we pull up a list of homes that they are interested in and I will say hey, I just want to make sure we vetted the process. Have you seen this one, this one, this one? And not only have they usually seen it, but they have named it. Oh yeah, the big tree home. Oh yeah, the lion house because there is lion statue on it.
Jeremy: They have named every home.
Michelle: They are very familiar. They have seen it multiple times on multiple occasions.
Jeremy: And this is a my reminder I would give to sellers. For people who are selling and trying to find a home, I want you to think about what you are doing. You are doing what I am saying the buyer for your home is doing. You know you have seen all the homes. So the buyers come in. You take them out, Michelle, and for $7.25, $7.50 a hour, no pay per hour, you show them homes. And the real work begins the day that you say oh we found a home.
Michelle: Yeah. We want to make an offer. We do not want to let this one get away. So then we start the negotiations.
Jeremy: What kind of paperwork is required to buy a home right now in the state of Utah?
Michelle: Well, you have got the contract, six-page contract.
Jeremy: Real Estate purchase contract.
Michelle: Right.
Jeremy: A Rep-C.
Michelle: Yeah. Then you have got a buyer-broker agreement so that we have –
Jeremy: With the broker.
Michelle: — a right to represent you in the deal.
Chantry: Six pages does not do it justice. There is no inch that is not used. It is a lot.
Michelle: Yeah, it is a lot.
Jeremy: It is 29 sections, 26 sections.
Chantry: It is not like hey let’s just hand this to a, we have seen horror stories when people try not to use a realtor. It is like let’s just take this contract and fill it out and turn it into a seller. There are so many things in that contract that if they do not know exactly what they are doing, they are going to miss out on something.
Jeremy: Yeah, so it is six-pages. There 26 sections.
Michelle: Yeah.
Chantry: 26 sections, yeah.
Michelle: Yeah, and for example like what loan are you using? What loan are you using? That will determine an additional addendum that is required for that loan.
Jeremy: Okay.
Michelle: Then there is the buyer due diligence checklist that the state requires that. So that is something to warn the buyers hey here is a list of stuff to be sure that you are checking off so that you make sure that you are making the right decision. That has to be included. And then negotiations go back and forth which will add addenda to the contract. It can get pretty –
Jeremy: Addenda.
Michelle: Yeah, did you like that?
Jeremy: You know what is interesting?
Michelle: Not addendums.
Jeremy: How about this? How about this? Section 8.4, additional earnest money. If the Rep-C has not been previously cancelled by the buyer as provided in Sections 8.1, 8.2, or 8.3 as applicable, then no later than the due diligence deadline or the financing appraisal deadline, whichever is later, buyer will or will not deposit additional earnest money. Any additional earnest money deposited, if applicable, and sometimes referred to herein as the deposits, that the earnest money deposit or deposits, if applicable, shall be credited toward the purchase price at closing. Did anyone hear anything I just said?
Chantry: It is very attorney-speak.
Jeremy: That is one stupid paragraph —
Michelle: Yeah. Legalese.
Jeremy: — of 26 sections of a contract. Right?
Chantry: And I know I should not use this term, but I do tell them when they are working with Michelle or someone that is really good like Michelle that Michelle is your attorney. You can find the house. She has to let you in, and there are a lot of things that she does need involved there, but she is your attorney, really.
Jeremy: Yeah, because they sign (indiscernible) that we are not legal help but we are playing that.
Michelle: Yeah.
Jeremy: How about this, and by the way, I have got Michelle Evans with the Larkin Group with our team over at the Keller Williams Realty. I have got Chantry Abbott, Guild Mortgage. So Chantry, you are a lender. What about if somebody submits a contract to you and it has deadlines that say that there is a financing and appraisal deadline? You get to deal with that. Right?
Chantry: Yeah, we have to make sure that we have got their loan approved and their appraisal reviewed, and everything looks good, otherwise they are potentially risking their earnest money deposit, which if you do not know what that is, like a security deposit, and sometimes it can be really expensive. We have seen $5,000, $10,000 can be in trouble if they are not having a real estate agent that is taking care of those deadlines.
Jeremy: How many pages in your typical loan contract to close a loan? I do not mean the contract with you. I mean the actual loan agreement with the bank. How many pages? Typically.
Chantry: Like at closing, it is probably roughly 30 pages.
Jeremy: 30 pages. Has anyone ever read one of those? It is epic. Right?
Chantry: Yeah.
Jeremy: It is epic boilerplate –
Michelle: Take your dictionary.
Jeremy: — legal-speak. Right? So Chantry, what if I turn in the contract to you that says listen, Michelle, wrote an offer. The offer is contingent on an appraisal. It is contingent on –
Michelle: Due diligence
Jeremy: — due diligence or a home inspection. It is also contingent on the seller who is in San Francisco selling their home, and there is an addendum that says that they have just put their home on the market in San Francisco, and they have 21 days to sell the home, and if they do not sell the home in 21 days, then we can cancel the contract and come back. While that is at it, we have a 72-hour clause that will allow other buyers to come in and the other buyers can make offers on the listing that Michelle wrote an offer on and then they could kick the first buyer out of place. Do you see that stuff as a lender?
Chantry: Yeah, quite often.
Jeremy: All of the time. When does the work begin, guys? The work begins at contract.
Chantry: Yes.
Michelle: Very much so.
Jeremy: And so if we are selling your home, by the way, the work, of course, begins when we start marketing your property. Of course, right? But we are really more, the day that we sign that listing agreement and we start saying let’s schedule photography and let’s do what we do. But if you are buying a home, the heavy-duty work, that is contract work.
Michelle: And I think that they do not realize that there is a second set of negotiations. So during that due diligence period, that is 10 days, two weeks roughly that you have to get a home inspection done and then there is a second set of negotiations. Because a home is sold as is, but often sellers will defer maintenance and just feel like well the buyer can take care of that.
Jeremy: So you mean there is a negotiation to buy the house and then there is another second negotiation once they have done an inspection?
Michelle: correct.
Jeremy: What if the appraisal comes in low, Chantry?
Chantry: Another opportunity for a negotiation. Right? So I guess that is a third potential negotiation.
Jeremy: What percentage, Chantry, of deals do you see have an appraisal come in low right now?
Chantry: Probably 95% of them are just fine. So maybe 1 out of 20 or something along those lines. There is an appraisal something. Sometimes it is not just value. Maybe it is the roof has an issue that needs to be fixed or things like that.
Jeremy: Guys, it is snowing really hard out there. I just want to interrupt this previously scheduled program.
Michelle: Gosh, it is pretty.
Jeremy: So, Michelle, Chantry, so happy you are with us today. Let me share some statistics with some folks this morning. It is February 21st. We got a little bit of a slow start at the Larkin Group this year. Last year, we had 173 buyers or sellers, families we helped. But we have 21 properties under contract, representing a buyer or seller. We have closed 13. So all that paperwork we just talked about, 13 times we have closed it. We have 21 under contract. We have executed 31 contracts since January 1st, meaning we took a buyer out, went through all that nonsense, negotiated a purchase price, negotiated a deal, went through the inspections, went through the appraisals, went through all the headache. Chantry, does sometimes days before closing a lender, like the underwriting lender come back and say that they need a pay stub from 2007 to prove that these people are actually real?
Chantry: Can. We sure try hard to avoid it but yeah, it is just one of those things sometimes. Right?
Jeremy: Yeah, right. So we have put 31 contracts together like this, and eight of them have fallen apart so far this year. That is the numbers so far. So 8 of 31 have fallen apart. And why do contracts fall out, Michelle? Like what would be the reasons? Why do deals fall apart mostly?
Michelle: They cannot qualify for their loan is a big one. They change their mind is another one. Something happens during the home inspection and if the seller is not willing to credit or repair that issue, then they are like we are out.
Jeremy: Yeah.
Michelle: So that is another thing.
Jeremy: You mean they get scared. They get nervous, they do not like the neighborhood, they do not like the church, parish, whatever they went to. They found five broken roof tiles and maybe they are concerned that, and the list goes on and on. Right?
Michelle: It does.
Chantry: Appraisal. Appraisal does not come out good. There is an issue.
Michelle: Their home does not sell. It was contingent on –
Jeremy: Yeah, they had to sell their home.
Michelle: Their contract fell through back in San Francisco or whatever it could be.
Jeremy: Yeah, the domino chain. Chantry, as we wrap up, final minute. Most important message you feel like buyers and sellers need from a lending perspective today.
Chantry: Yeah, I just think that I have preached about this a bunch of times. But interest rates, we all know at some point, are going to be going up. Right? They have gone up about 1% in 2018. They went up about 1% in 2017.
Jeremy: Yeah. By the way, that costs people 20% of their purchasing power.
Chantry: And that is what I was going to tie it into. Perfect.
Jeremy: Ooops.
Chantry: If that goes up, no, it is great. If that goes up 1% again in 2019, which it probably will, most likely, who knows, but probably, that impacts their purchasing power or their monthly payment by 10%, which means home prices would have to change by 10% or they would have to buy a 10% less home. So I know the price of the house matters. I bought a place in 2007. I still have it. I have a ton of equity.
Jeremy: Worst possible time to buy a house.
Chantry: I have a ton of equity because it does not matter that much unless you are going to sell it next year.
Jeremy: Yep. Exactly. Exactly.
Michelle: Yeah.
Jeremy: Michelle, thank you for being on here with us today.
Michelle: Thank you.
Jeremy: And for bringing your expertise and talking about what realtors, I was about to say real estate agents, real estate agents and mortgage professionals, mortgage lenders, we get paid to produce an outcome. Right? At the end of the day, we do not get paid for the hours we work because sometimes we work 100 hours and sometimes, we work seven on the same deal. Right?
Michelle: Right.
Jeremy: We get paid to produce an outcome. We get paid to walk somebody through the most complicated and emotional process of their life, and that might include needing to reduce their price if they are selling the home. All sorts of things.
Chantry: I think we protect them through that process. Right? That is what we do.
Jeremy: Bingo. Bingo. Guys, I want you to visit St. George Home Searching dot com. St. George Home Searching dot com because we are talking about the MLS. If you want to look at every single house that is on the Multiple Listing Service right now, St. George Home Searching dot com. You can click on the link there to find out what your home is worth. Check it out. Thanks, Chantry Abbott, Guild Mortgage. 674-1090 if you want to speak with him. 674-1090. If you want to reach out to us, 275-1690. Sold in St. George dot com. There you go. End of story.

Click on Facebook Live. to see the entire recorded show from Facebook! Below is the actual S. George Real Estate Morning Drive show, hosted by St. George Real Estate Agent Jeremy Larkin, word for word! Enjoy and please share if you find it valuable! 

Jeremy Larkin and The Larkin Group @ Keller Williams Realty can be reached by calling 435-767-9821, or emailing sales@gostgeorge.com. 

Jeremy:  … good day to everybody.  It is kind of nice out there.  What do you think about the little bit of rain, Mike?

Mike:  I am loving it.  It is all right by me.

Jeremy:  You are not offended?

Mike:  No, not at all.

Jeremy: Do you remember 2013?  Do you remember about this week in 2013?

Mike: It got a little white around here, didn’t it?

Jeremy:  It did, didn’t it?

Mike:  Yes, it did.

Jeremy:  Can you believe that?Read more…