My Seller Got Arrested Twice & Locked Me Out The Basement

In Episode 9 of The Fitze Is Right, Maryland realtor Jen Fitze tells the story of the most chaotic listing of her career — one that ended with an arrest, a restraining order, and a seller she's still tagged as "incarcerated" in her CRM.

It started as a simple referral. A realtor friend at a 55-and-older new construction community in Perry Hall called Jen to list a woman's house. The seller needed to sell in order to qualify to buy in the new community. Simple enough. Jen drove down, met the woman — super sweet, 90 pounds, not even five feet tall — toured the house, which was clean and beautifully decorated. Everything seemed perfect.

Then Jen heard yelling from the basement. On the tour, one daughter's bedroom was locked with a note that said she could never show it. The stairwell to the basement had no trespassing signs posted in the seller's own home. The basement was completely off limits.

What Jen discovered: one daughter upstairs had mental health issues. Another daughter and her wife were living in the basement rent-free, screaming obscenities at their mother. The husband, sitting on the couch ignoring everything, apparently doesn't live there — and now Jen knew why.

It got worse. During listing photos, the upstairs daughter's bedroom door had warnings written on it: "Keep out. No trespassing. You'll go to jail." When the daughter was finally gone, Jen was able to see the room — the walls were covered in drawings and nasty messages to the mother. In Sharpie.

Then came the phone call no agent ever expects. The builder's agent called: "We have a problem." The 90-pound seller had been arrested for assault on her basement daughter. A restraining order was filed — against the mother. She couldn't return to her own house. The daughters threw her clothes on the front lawn.

A few days later? Arrested again. Same charge. Jen had to withdraw the listing and put in the notes: "Seller is incarcerated." The seller lost $10,000 in good faith deposit on the new construction because she couldn't sell her house. The daughters won — they were living there for free and sabotaged the entire sale.

Jen also breaks down the financial reality of being a realtor that most people don't understand: agents front all costs out of pocket, don't get paid until settlement, and if the deal falls through, they eat every dollar they invested. Plus four scenarios that can kill a deal — from financing falling through to title search surprises.

In this episode you'll learn: → What happens when a seller's family sabotages a home sale → Why the basement is where all the problems hide → What realtors actually pay out of pocket before getting paid → Why realtors only earn about $40/hour when you break it down → Four things that can kill a deal between contract and closing → Why you should never buy anything during escrow — not even gum

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Thanks for listening to The Fitze Is Right with Jen Fitze... the real estate podcast that tells you what your agent won't.

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Got a real estate horror story of your own? We want to hear it. Send your story to @jenniferfitzecompassrealestate and Jen might read and react to it live on a future episode.

CONNECT WITH JEN: All socials @jenniferfitzecompassrealestate

WORK WITH JEN: Buying or selling a home in Maryland? Jen has over 20 years of experience helping families in Harford County, Baltimore County, and beyond. Reach out at jensellsmd@gmail.com

Transcript

The Seller Got Arrested While Jen Was Listing Her House

SPEAKER_01 0:00

I get a call from the agent at the builder model, and they're like, we have a problem. She was arrested. The little 90-pound little lady was arrested for assault on her daughter. Welcome to The Fights is Race, where I tell you real stories about real estate deals and all the things buyers,

Intro: Welcome to The Fitze Is Right

SPEAKER_01 0:20

sellers, and even agents should know about before it's too late. There was a new construction community in Perry Hall, and a realtor friend of mine was actually saying it was in the builder model. Like she was the one that you see when you walk in. And this woman, multiple times, she came in with her and her husband, and they finally decided that they were going to buy the new construction house, and they were, you know, doing all the things, the contract and all that, to buy one of these

The House Looked Perfect... Until She Heard the Basement

SPEAKER_01 0:50

houses in Perry Hall. But she has to sell her house in order to qualify to buy the new house because she needs proceeds from the one to buy the other. So that agent called me and was like, Hey, do you want to go and list her house? Like, kind of refer her to me, and gave me her, you know, contact information and whatnot. She gave me a little backstory about them. They're older, but because this is like a 55 and older community, and they're married, but they don't live together. He lives with his son and she lives in her house with her daughters.

SPEAKER_00 1:28

And this is not at the community.

SPEAKER_01 1:31

No.

SPEAKER_00 1:31

But they want she wanted to be a community.

SPEAKER_01 1:33

She's buying in that community because they were still, they were building. Um, so I reached out to this woman. We had a very good conversation on the phone. She's so super sweet, really, really nice, normal, like just we actually we had we had a really good conversation. So I scheduled a time to go down there and meet with her and see the house. Fast forward, I go, you know, to our appointment. I get there, and this was in Annemonville County, and it was an area that I don't usually work in, but you know, it was I'm doing this as kind of as a favor for the other, for the builder. I get down there and I go in the house, super nice house, like clean, just very well like decorated, and it was nice. I was excited about it because the area wasn't all that great. Her husband's there, sitting on the couch. The dog, oh my gosh, she's a two-saw. I don't remember what the name of the dog was, but the dog literally got up on the couch and was laying with me the whole time. It was so sweet. I just this lady, she's so she's like all of 90 pounds. She's just this little little thing. And we go on a tour of the house, and she's taking me through. And in the midst of the tour of the house, like my first time seeing it, all of a sudden I hear like yelling from the basement.

SPEAKER_00 2:53

So that's like very abnormal for what you thought this lady was, like, probably.

SPEAKER_01 2:58

Yeah, I don't know. I didn't know what the yelling was, and then this lady was yelling back, and like to you know, be quiet, or what I'm like, oh great. So this is like the first time you're like, maybe something. Maybe something like I'd like it was just you couldn't, you wouldn't have known, just like even like the main level, and so we're going upstairs, look at the bedrooms, and she's like, My one daughter's in this bedroom, the door's locked, we can't go in there, I can't show it to you. It can't be shown when buyers come. So it's like, well, that that's gonna be a problem because buyers want to see every bit of a house that they're going to buy.

SPEAKER_00 3:44

Are sellers technically allowed to say like something can't be seen or no? Like you need to let someone see.

SPEAKER_01 3:49

Um, I think the only thing that's really like I've ever seen closed off or locked off was like a closet. Like if there was like they didn't have a gun safe, but they had guns in a closet, like they

No Trespassing Signs. Locked Rooms. Drawings on the Walls.

SPEAKER_01 4:00

can lock the closet, but like a whole room? No, like we have to be able to see the room, everything. We were going back down the main level, and she was like, Let's go outside. We go outside, really nice yard deck, and we're her and I are getting along great. Like, this is like really good rapport, like we are just really like vibing. But yes, I'm like really getting excited because it's a nice house. And then we go back inside, and the kitchen has the stairwell to go down to the basement, and there's big signs up. You can't don't come down here, no trespassing. In her own house, in her own house, in the the go down like the stairwell, and so I couldn't go down the basement.

SPEAKER_00 4:45

So, genuinely, as like an agent, like what is what is going through your mind at this point?

SPEAKER_01 4:50

What is like really going on? Like, why who are these people that are down there yelling like these obscenities to this little 90-pound woman? And why can't I go down the basement? What is actually happening?

SPEAKER_00 5:05

Like, and you're you're probably racisting of like multiple scenarios that could be.

SPEAKER_01 5:09

Yeah, so then we go back and sit down, and I'm trying to like get it out of her. Like, what so her daughter that's upstairs that we can't look in the room has mental issues, right? So we couldn't so if I tried to go in there, Lord only knows what would have happened. And the girls in the basement, one of them is her daughter, and the other one is the wife of the daughter. And then a separate daughter, huh?

SPEAKER_00 5:35

That's a different daughter than upstairs daughter, right?

SPEAKER_01 5:37

So there's two daughters, one up, one down, and the one that's down is has a girlfriend married, whatever, to another woman. And they live down there, and they were just very like nasty, nasty to her, just mean and nasty, and just screaming at her and cussing at her, and and the husband is just sitting on the couch, like not even like paying any attention. And I'm like, Oh, this is why he doesn't live here, right? So he doesn't want to live here, he doesn't want to live here. We finished kind of having a conversation and about like pricing and like what things that she had to do, and I was like, Well, we have to be able to go down the basement. And she's like, Well, we're not going to. Nobody's gonna be able to be on the basement.

SPEAKER_00 6:21

So is she like scared of like she wants that to happen, but she's just known as that it's not possible with the kids, or she She just thinks in her own little mind that it's okay if nobody looks at the basement. But is she like standing up for the daughter then? Or is she also like the No?

SPEAKER_01 6:38

I think she was like, she knew in her mind that she wasn't gonna be able to get anybody to go down there. And so she was making it an okay thing. Like somebody's gonna come buy this house because they're gonna love this main level. No, like, but they're not gonna be able to. I'm like, that's where all of the issues are in a house, are in the basement. Like all the systems, all the like major problems are down the basement. Like, you have to be able to go down the basement. And she's like, no one's going to be able to go down to the basement. So what are you thinking about? And I was like, well, you're gonna have to have a conversation with her because I can't sell the house. No one can. No one can sell the house. No one's going to, I can't put in the remarks, hey, good luck with the showing, but you can't go in the one bedroom and you can't go down the basement. So call me when you're bringing me an offer. Like that doesn't, it's not gonna work like that.

SPEAKER_00 7:25

And people now think there's something suspicious there. Right.

SPEAKER_01 7:29

Yeah, like what's what's down there? Like, is there, you know, meth lab or you know, and why like flooding and mold, or like they don't know what's down there. And the big signs like of no trespassing, don't come down. Like, that's extremely welcoming when you're going to go and look.

SPEAKER_00 7:46

Yeah, and it's her house though. Like, why can't she say get out?

SPEAKER_01 7:50

or I I guess internally she's scared of them. Her own kids. Because they're bigger than her. Um that's sad. And very nasty. Very, very nasty. And I mean, they were even yelling at me and they don't even know me. Like, they never even I left there, and we continue to move forward with the whole like listing process because she was under contract with the new construction, and I had scheduled listing photos. So I met the photographer outside. I was like, hey, I don't know how this is gonna go. Just kind of go with the flow here.

SPEAKER_00 8:26

But at this point in time, you're scheduling listing photos, and there's still no agreement on the basement. Like, she's still like, nope, can't go there. And you're knowing in your head I have to go.

SPEAKER_01 8:34

Well, I told her that she had to have a conversation and she said that she would, and she would try to get things up and get them out for showings or try to like come up with like a plan to go forward.

SPEAKER_00 8:44

Also, are you not dying to see what's in these rooms? Like, just like a selfish.

SPEAKER_01 8:49

No, like what's down there? Yeah, like what's in the bedroom? Like what's in the basement? Like what listing photos. She we go in, the photographer, and it's a it's not the photographer that I usually use because it's in a different area that I service all the time. So I did somebody new. Of course, this person doesn't know me, and they don't, and they're walking into this situation, and I'm like, I'm really sorry. I don't know what's happening. We're doing the photos on the main level, we did the photos outside, we did the foot. Meanwhile, the second bedroom was like her storage. So I had to go up and like move everything out of the way, like put it all in the closet, move from room from that room to the primary bedroom, back and forth for pictures. I mean, the whole thing. Like, she had her Costco size, like paper towels and toilet paper and boxes of all this stuff that she just stored in there. So I had to like move it and back, and we and then on the door, that this was added on the door to the one bedroom that we couldn't get into was like, don't come in here, keep out, no trespassing, you'll go to jail, like written on the bedroom door. Speaking directly to you, speaking directly to me.

SPEAKER_00 10:03

Yeah, so they're not home, like everyone wasn't home at this point, or we don't know.

SPEAKER_01 10:08

The daughters, the daughter in the basement was home. Okay, so the daughter in the in the bedroom was not home. Or she was very, very quiet. Oh, okay. I don't know. She wasn't home because then the seller let me come in and look at the bedroom, and that's when we saw what was on the wall, and she drew penises

The 90-Pound Seller Was Arrested for Assault

SPEAKER_01 10:30

all over her wall. For the listing photos? All different sizes sharpie on the wall, and and then more like nasty words to like her mother about penis sizes and things like that.

SPEAKER_00 10:48

Very penis.

SPEAKER_01 10:50

I have the photos somewhere.

SPEAKER_00 10:51

So did this go on them? I took pictures of them. Does this go on the listing? No. Well, this must be where you should use some AI to make it look a little normal. I have to find the photos. But you never got to the basement.

SPEAKER_01 11:07

No, I never got to the basement. So the photographer leaves. I'm trying to still have this conversation about having to show the whole house when we were going on the market, like how like the whole, like the builder wanted her house on the market, and this, you know, we were getting ready to go active, and then I get a call from the agent at the builder model, and they're like, We have a problem. And I'm like, okay. She was arrested. The mom? The mom was arrested. The little 90-pound little lady was arrested. For assault. For assault on her daughter. On her daughter in the basement daughter.

SPEAKER_00 11:45

How old did the mom get arrested and not the daughter?

SPEAKER_01 11:47

I don't know. I don't know, like, the exact details. I mean, this lady, she's probably not even five foot tall. Like, she's little. So I'm like looking up on case search, like, what's happening? And it was like second, you know, whatever degree assault. And it was like the daughter against the mother and like restraining order. She had to re- they put a restraining order out on the mother. So the mother was then staying at a friend's house and then like calling the next door neighbor and saying, hey, go to my house and get this out of there, get my clothes. And the daughters are like throwing all of her stuff out on the like her clothes on the front lawn. It was madness. Like, I don't even know how I got wrapped up into this situation. So at this point, are you even thinking about selling the house at all? Like, how is this gonna how? So I like had to put the listing as like temp off and like don't like do not go active. And um she was just I don't know, she was she it was like three days later that she finally was able to go home from jail, from jail,

Arrested AGAIN. Lost $10K. The Daughters Won.

SPEAKER_01 13:00

but if she could only go to the neighbor's house, I don't think she could still go to her house. So she pays for yelling across like out the window across to the daughters, like they're screaming, like yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:13

But she's paying for said house. It's her house. Not allowed to get in.

SPEAKER_01 13:16

She's been there for like 30 years.

SPEAKER_00 13:18

I don't understand how something like this occurs.

SPEAKER_01 13:20

I don't either. Like how I don't know. And so, like, and I talked to her after she came home from jail. She seemed totally fine. Like this is normal. This is normal. And I look on case sergeant, this has never happened before. Like, this is like a complete one-off. A few days go by, I'm like, okay, things have settled down, I haven't heard anything. And why I haven't heard anything? It's because she was arrested again. And for the same thing.

SPEAKER_00 13:51

And she so she's in jail.

SPEAKER_01 13:52

So she's in jail.

SPEAKER_00 13:54

Why is she assaulting them? Do you think they're like assaulting her and she's just protecting herself because she's too nice to put her daughters in jail?

SPEAKER_01 14:01

They're assaulting her, and she's taking the hit for it. Because she still has that motherly love or whatever. Yeah. So they had to go to court and do all the things, and then the one daughter is calling me after court to give me an update on what's happening. I thought she had you're the one, right? So then she's the one who was assaulting, but then the mother was taking the hit for it.

SPEAKER_00 14:24

And was it basement daughter or room daughter calling?

SPEAKER_01 14:27

Basement daughter. And she's acting normal. Normal. Totally normal. And like the girlfriend was there in the car, and then the the basement daughter apparently had a had a daughter as well. I didn't know this. Oh my gosh. And so that daughter was driving because the basement daughter is half blind. So this was a really well-rounded family. So do you think that maybe they didn't want her to sell the house or something? They didn't want her to sell the house because they were living there for free. And they weren't going to be able to do that. They were completely mooching off of her and they weren't going to get out and they had nowhere to go. And so they were doing everything they can to get her not to sell it. To not sell the house. And it worked because she's still there. So you just kind of dropped this. Oh, absolutely. But she was also in went into default on the new construction because she didn't sell her house. And she gave them $10,000 in good faith that she was going to sell her house and buy the new construction. So they wouldn't give her $10,000 back.

SPEAKER_00 15:28

And that she they don't legally.

SPEAKER_01 15:30

And she's still fighting it. Like up to like six months ago, she was still fighting to get her $10,000 back.

SPEAKER_00 15:34

Yeah, but the point is the good faith. Like, sorry. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:37

Like you didn't do what you were supposed to do. So we're not giving you your money back.

SPEAKER_00 15:41

So how long, like in months, did this last ongoing of you working with them?

SPEAKER_01 15:47

Maybe it was maybe three weeks. Oh, this escalated quickly. Yeah, it was very quick. That's crazy. I guess the daughters didn't think that she was really going to move. Because she's moving from like Adorno County, like not a good area, all the way to Perry Hall. And she told them that they weren't going with her. So that's what they saw. That's like a 55 and older community, so they couldn't go with her. What about husband? Husband, after all of this went down, based from my knowledge, they they got divorced.

SPEAKER_00 16:18

Which is sad. Poor I feel bad for him. Because I really liked him and he like probably just doesn't want to deal with this.

SPEAKER_01 16:25

I have no idea. Yeah.

unknown 16:26

Dang.

SPEAKER_00 16:27

But then she gets her house when she's out. Maybe she'll come back to Yeah, I doubt it.

SPEAKER_01 16:32

So it's funny because it's not funny.

The Fitze Verdict: Realtors Don't Get Paid Until Settlement

SPEAKER_01 16:35

It's really sad, but in the listing, I had to like withdraw it off the market and cancel it. But usually when you like cancel listing, all the other realtors are like swarming in on like, hey, let me try to get this listing. So I had to put in there that the seller is incarcerated.

SPEAKER_00 16:49

So please do not so not something you want at all.

SPEAKER_01 16:54

And no, and I actually have her in my CRM as I have a tag of her incarcerated. She's the only one.

SPEAKER_00 17:02

Hey, diversity.

SPEAKER_01 17:04

Right. The fight's verdict is please do not assault anyone. Please do not get arrested and go to jail. Please do not get a restraining order against yourself while you're trying to buy or sell a house. Just wait till after. Just wait till after. Like I don't care if you do it like an hour after settlement. And please don't do anything to screw up getting your good base deposit back. That's a lot of money. Lot of money.

SPEAKER_00 17:28

So what could have paid for a good lawyer? For a realtor, you're doing all these things. You pay, like you're the one pupp paying for listing photos, correct?

SPEAKER_01 17:39

Yes, I had a sign put up in everything.

SPEAKER_00 17:41

And when something like that.

SPEAKER_01 17:52

You don't get that back. I don't get any of that back.

SPEAKER_00 17:54

So as a realtor, you only get paid till settlement. Yeah. So you're fronting it all basically.

SPEAKER_01 18:00

You front it all. In good faith. They're gonna act the way they're supposed to act.

SPEAKER_00 18:05

Um outside of this story, what can go wrong between you meeting someone to work with them and actually getting to closing day? Even though you're putting in all this work as a realtor, like what are these things that can go kind of south where you don't really end up making money at the end?

SPEAKER_01 18:21

Well, if the if the house doesn't sell, yeah. If the house doesn't sell, if I've had, you know, the seller die, if it gets under contract and the buyers, you know, fall through and it never sells, or like a home inspection like needs a new well or a septic or something of that nature, and it doesn't sell because of that. So I can get all the way through to settlement and not settle, and I don't get any.

SPEAKER_00 18:46

So if you're like a new realtor starting up trying to build up your business, how do you deal with what to take on and what not to take on, knowing that like maybe you don't have as much money to front certain costs?

SPEAKER_01 18:56

As a new realtor, though, when you're just starting getting started, you're literally going to take everything that you can get. Because you're gonna get you want to get as much experience as you can, and you wanna get your name out there as much as possible. So you're really just running and taking anything. It's not till later on when you have more of an established business that you can say, Yes, I'm gonna take this one as a client, or no, I'm not gonna, like, because you can, you know, you can't like be prejudicial against anyone, but you can decide you as a business owner, like this is not going to be this is not gonna work, we're not gonna work well together.

SPEAKER_00 19:33

What are some things that you do now as your experience to kind of like uh protect your time, I guess, as a realtor when it comes to who you're working with or what you're putting into certain relationships like that?

SPEAKER_01 19:44

Well, when I have my first like conversation or consultation with a seller or a buyer, I'm really getting down to like what their motivation is, like why they want to sell or buy, what their time frame is. Like, do they have to? Do they just want to? Are they just like kicking tires to see what's out there? My time is like precious. So I'm not gonna just go and like, hey, let's just go look at this for the sake of looking at a house, or like I need to know that you are serious you have to move for X, Y, Z reason, and then move forward. If you're just like, hey, this house is new in the market, let's just go look at it on a Sunday afternoon.

SPEAKER_00 20:25

No, it's not your or if someone is like, hey, I just want to start looking over the next couple months, it's you you're putting in less effort than if it's like someone who's like, I need to move right next exactly.

SPEAKER_01 20:35

And if they're not willing to speak to a mortgage lender to get pre-approved, they just want to go looking. I'm like, well, no, then you're not serious.

SPEAKER_00 20:42

Because you do that with everyone, right? You say you have to get pre-approved before we even look at a house.

SPEAKER_01 20:45

I'm not gonna take you out to see a house unless I know you can buy it.

SPEAKER_00 20:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:48

Because you have no idea what's in your credit, you have no idea what you can afford, and you're gonna go out and find look at a house that you absolutely love, and it's like way out of your budget, and then you're just brokenhearted and you're like, screw it.

SPEAKER_00 20:59

Not a win-win for anyone. Not a win-win for anyone. Do you think that's the most misunderstood thing? Or yeah, is that the word from like the people who aren't realtors perspective, that you really don't get paid till everything's said and done?

SPEAKER_01 21:12

Oh, yeah. And everyone thinks we get paid, they see how much the houses sell for, and they think that we make like that much money. Or like when I say, Oh, I have like a million dollars a month or something, that means I sold a million dollars worth of real estate. I didn't make a billion dollars in real estate. A lot of people don't understand like the different, you know, commissions and splits and what groupers take and the fact that we're self-employed too. So like we have it's insurance to pay out, taxes to pay out, security to pay out, and all these different and we're fronting all the money for the marketing and and you're just like hoping it pays off like when the sale comes. Yeah. I mean, I think it we just calculated the other day in one of our office meetings, and the aver our average like hourly rate when it breaks it down is like $40 an hour.

SPEAKER_00 22:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:00

But people think you're Yeah, they think we're multimillionaires.

SPEAKER_00 22:04

We're now speaking to

What Your Agent Won't Tell You: 4 Ways Your Deal Dies

SPEAKER_00 22:05

the aspiring realtors who are watching this and getting every inch of, you know, because you've been in the game for a while. Like I think we see people in real estate like living very lavishly. Like it's obvio it's obvious that you can make a lot of money there, but you have to work hard for it. Then you see the other hand where you have like so many people become realtors and they kind of just like have to go get a second job and kind of fall off because it's not easy to like front it all yourself. So what do you think is separating the two? And like what's that biggest piece of advice to get to be the one that is very financially free?

SPEAKER_01 22:33

It's all in the hustle, it's all in what you put into it. Like if you think this is just like a part-time gig, it is not. It is like every single day consistent action to get towards where you where you want to be. Like, this is you're not just gonna like free ball it and just go out and like, oh, let me go show house today, let me go do an open house once a month, let me go. Like, you have to literally put every your heart and soul and all the effort into this, into making it work. Because if you don't, you're gonna fail.

SPEAKER_00 23:03

And you've seen that? I've seen it, I've seen it all the time. What are the three like three crazy freaking things you did when you were starting out in real estate to make it work?

SPEAKER_01 23:11

Oh, like just like literally call on the phone. We used to have floor duty where we would sit there for like hours on end at random times, and people will call and be like, hey, Kim, you come sell my house. I don't know who these people are. Okay, I'm leaving right now. And I you just go there and make it work. I'm like, little like, I mean, this was a long time ago. I was in my 20s when I got my license. Like, okay, let me just try. No, that's just not safe. It is not safe. Or like people call and say, Hey, I'm not standing outside this house. Can you come show it to me? Okay, I'll be right there.

SPEAKER_00 23:48

Could be anyone else. Could be anybody, yeah. I could be that in an hour. What is it that keeps you in the game? Like, even when it's hard and you're starting out, what do you think the payoff was at first that made you stay with real estate?

SPEAKER_01 24:01

I just love it. I love experiencing everybody, I love being along on these journeys. I mean, and you know, you just bought a house. Like, it's totally like the stresses like just being a part of all of that and just the excitement. Yeah, like when I got to make the call to Halen the other day and was like, You got it, and like they're screaming and crying on the phone, like it just totally makes it worth it, worth it. Even all the arrested crazy sellers, arrested stuff aside, yeah. This just totally it makes it because she was like, I can't breathe.

SPEAKER_00 24:36

This is really real life, and I was like, Yeah, you got it. That's so cute. I know. Um, you now, with everything you know, if I'm a new realtor, if you told me I could do five things every single morning when I wake up getting ready to work to be successful, what are those five things I should do?

SPEAKER_01 24:52

Those five things are you are going to write down every day what you have to do, like your non-negotiables. I think the best the things to do in the morning, and if you and if anybody has ever read The Miracle Morning, it's a great book. But if you haven't, I highly recommend it because it really gets you centered for the day. So it's like you get up and you work out, you journal, you just have like 10 minutes of quiet time within you before the day gets crazy, just so you can like really like just be inside yourself and just you know, take on the day. Clearly know what you're doing. I always make my schedule out for the week on a Sunday, so I know what I'm doing every single day. And then like big things that I want to accomplish that week are in a different thing, so it's like I'll tap them in. But it's just being organized, not just scrolling off.

SPEAKER_00 25:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:46

And knowing what you have to do to get to the next part.

SPEAKER_00 25:50

So are you someone that like ranks tasks by like most important? You tackle the most hardest thing.

SPEAKER_01 25:56

Yeah, eat the frog, eat the frog, do the hardest thing first, make the hardest phone call first because then the rest of your day it's cake.

SPEAKER_00 26:02

Yeah. And then otherwise you're like kind of wasting your time procrastinating.

SPEAKER_01 26:06

Yeah, you're scrolling, you're just like doing anything you can do to not do those things.

SPEAKER_00 26:11

So, how much more productive do you think you are planning your weeks ahead of time than if you weren't?

SPEAKER_01 26:16

Oh, I'm much more. So I use it's called the Pomodoro technique. And I don't know if you've ever heard of that. My coach uses it. Um, so you literally set a timer for 25 minutes, you turn your phone off or your email, it shut your social media, you shut it all down on your computer, and you do a specific task for that 25 minutes. Like you know what you're doing, you work on it, you're focused, you do not scroll off. When the timer goes off, you have a five-minute break, get up, go to the bathroom, get a drink, whatever, and then you do it again. So you're supposed to do it four times a day. I don't necessarily do it for four times a day, but that's what you're supposed to do for four times a day, and you get 16 hours back in your week. Just from doing something focused. Focused, instead of like, oh, my phone's ringing, let me stop what I'm doing. Because then the time you get back to it a half an hour later, you're like not in the zone anymore, and then you just forget, or just you half-ass it, or you know, whatever.

SPEAKER_00 27:13

So it's good for like the hard mental heavy tasks to just do it.

SPEAKER_01 27:17

Just yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:19

These are four different situations that could happen, little horror stories. Someone's trying to buy a house and something falls through, and you're gonna tell me the truth of it, then maybe your agent isn't gonna tell someone else. Okay? Okay. So if financing falls through, what does someone tell? So financing false stories. So things you do during escrow that could kill your loan.

SPEAKER_01 27:42

Oh, you can go buy a car, you can go buy your washer and dryer that's on sale at Home People More Day again. Yeah. You could give somebody money, loan people somebody money, or co-sign on somebody's something for someone because they asked really nicely. Anything to affect your credit. Don't do it. You can get arrested.

SPEAKER_00 27:59

Yeah. Yeah. All right, seller backs out. So what sellers can legally do after accepting your offer and what they can't legally do?

SPEAKER_01 28:06

They really can't back out. Like there really is no way for a seller to back out without being sued. Like really. Wow. Like once they're under contract, once they put their house in the market, that is their they're selling their house, and then they can't come two weeks later after a buyer's had inspections and stuff and say, never mind, we're not selling. Okay. Because everybody's going to be suing them. So it's it's a done deal.

SPEAKER_00 28:30

Yeah. Appraisal issue. The appraisal can kill your deal, and there's almost nothing that you can do about it.

SPEAKER_01 28:36

Um, that's not true. I mean, if the appraisal comes in low, you can either the seller can either lower the price or the buyer and seller can negotiate like a middle ground. If the buyer doesn't want to pay like $25,000 over what it appraised for, then they can get it out of the contract. And it's fine. Yeah. But it's not, yeah, but you can negotiate that.

SPEAKER_00 28:59

And what a title search actually reveals and why it could blow up your closing. Oh, we're okay. We're dealing with this now.

SPEAKER_01 29:05

Um, title search is they the title company will go back and look at all the times the property has been bought and sold or refinanced to make sure that all of the the liens and the judgments and mortgages have all been paid off and released, and make sure that there's no additional liens, like mechanics liens, or you know, you put a deck on the house and didn't pay the contractor and they put a lien on your house, or like you're not paying your HOA and they put a lien on the house, then you're gonna go back and make sure that there's no none of that is there and everything's been released because you are getting free and clear title at settlements. If something does come up, then if they have to research it and get it clear before you can even settle. So we were supposed to settle property yesterday, and now you probably won't settle for like two weeks because the I guess it was like a second home app without you or whatever, was paid off in March, but it hasn't been released yet or recorded and released. So we're waiting for that to happen before we can even settle.

SPEAKER_00 30:04

Awesome.

unknown 30:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:06

Here are your four rapid fire questions. As the audience knows, they can always comment on your videos, they can DM you, ask any questions they want to be asked on the podcast, and we pick a few every time for you to have to answer rapid fire. Okay, so viewer number one said true or false, once a seller accepts your offer, they can't back out. True. Already answered that. Comment number two, what's the most last minute a deal has ever fallen apart for you? At settlement table. Awkward. Awkward three, can you lose your deposit if the deal falls through and win? Depends, yes. Depends on what?

SPEAKER_01 30:36

Depends on if whether you're walking away because the house next door went on the market and you like that one better, or you're walking away because of the contingency that was in the contract. Like the inspection stocked or so that's your choice, like you were losing it.

SPEAKER_00 30:47

But yes, it's like and last one, what's the one thing every buyer should do during escrow that most people don't know to do?

SPEAKER_01 30:54

They should not buy anything. Ever. Ever. Not even gum.

SPEAKER_00 31:00

Not even a pack of gum.

SPEAKER_01 31:03

Stay tuned for the next episode because I'm gonna talk about all the ins and outs of being a landlord in a postal second home place. Community. Community. And all the ins and outs that go with that the good, the bad, the ugly, and how you can actually make some money.