The reality guys is that real estate transactions can be messy. They are not as clean as you see on TV. So don’t believe it. I’m Eric Sztanyo from Keller Williams Realty and team Sztanyo.com, where we are helping you find your home and strengthen your family. I’m out east today. I’m out very far east in Mt Orab, Ohio. If you take highway 32 east, about 10, 15 miles is where we’re at, actually maybe more like 20 miles. About to do a walkthrough with this house right behind me here with my buyer client. And I’ll tell you what guys, this has been a challenging real estate transaction for me, a difficult one, and it’s a little bit more challenging than some of the other ones, but I wanted to do a quick video to talk about expectations when you’re buying or selling a house and the reality of buying or selling the house and all the things that come with it, because it can be very complicated, it can be very messy. So how do you keep your head through a challenging real estate transaction? let’s talk about that.
Why I Love Being A Real Estate Agent and How I Keep My Head High Through The Challenges in Real Estate
You guys are getting the full life of a realtor today. I’ve got five kids and this morning is our co-op where we homeschool our kids. They’re going to homeschool. My wife usually takes them there, but as it has been for like every week, the last several weeks, one or two or three of the kids is sick. So I have two of my kids with me. This is one of the great advantages of being a real estate agent is you’re running your own business and you get to be flexible and help with your family. It’s also a challenge when you’re trying to work with clients and you’ve got your three-year-old and your five-year-old with you. But Hey, we’ve all got challenges, right? Life is messy, life is complicated, life is not what it looks like on HGTV.
And that’s why I do YouTube channel and not an HGTV show because everything doesn’t always wrap up in a nice little box with a bow on top. And I think it’s important when you are either buying or selling a house to kind of have that mindset to go into a challenging real estate transaction knowing there’s going to be problems, but we’re going to get through it. And so that’s kind of why I’m doing this video here. I think it’s good for most people if they’re looking to buy or sell a house to know that, to expect that there’s going to be things that go wrong. So what I usually tell my buyers or sellers is there’s maybe two to three to four times during the transaction where you can celebrate and you should celebrate. When you get pre-approved for your loan when you’re a buyer, that’s a moment to celebrate. Cause you’re like “yes, I’ve got the financing. I can go shopping.” When you get something under contract, whether you’re a buyer or seller, it’s time to celebrate. That’s a big deal.
Whether you found the house or you found a buyer for the house that you’re selling, you should celebrate that moment and that should feel good. When you get through inspections, that’s a big moment. Again, both buying or selling, you’ve negotiated on the repairs. You’re through inspections. You’re probably 80-85% of the way there to the closing.
The next one is when the appraisal comes back and it meets the value at which you’re under contract for. That’s a time to celebrate because you don’t have to do a further negotiation. And then maybe the last one is when you close, that’s it, you got the keys or you got your check, whichever it is, whether you’re buying or selling. That’s the biggest celebration of all, that’s the most fun.
But it’s important to take each one of those moments and pause and say “this is worth celebrating because in the middle of all of those moments is probably 30 to 50 problems that have to be solved.”
Now, this is what your agents are for, your agents are there to help you, hopefully, help you to have a level mind and keep you emotionally stable when all the problems come up. When you put in an offer and the seller counteroffers, or when you don’t have all the right paperwork to get your pre-approval loan, or when you apply for the loan and you need more paperwork or you need IRS documents, or the repairs list is super long, you get the inspection report back and there’s 60 pages worth of things and you’re overwhelmed by all the repairs that need to be done.
There are so many things. But your agent hopefully is experienced enough, has done enough transactions where they can say “look, this happens, you know, we’re just gonna focus on this thing. We’re going to get through it. There’s a solution to this problem.” Because in reality, there is 99% of the problems can get solved. Very, very rarely in a transaction that there is something where you can’t figure it out between the buyer and the seller, you can’t make it work. And you can be hard on negotiating, or you can be soft or whatever, be flexible or somewhere in the middle, even no matter where you’re at on that spectrum, the point is you can solve these problems.
Now, I say that this is a challenging real estate transaction. We’ve had problems. the buyer was moving from across the country and our closing got delayed. And so his timing has been all messed up. Our appraisal came back short. And so what that meant was we had to negotiate with the seller and we had, you know, the deal was almost blown up there, but we got it worked out. And then now we’re, we’re waiting on the final, clear to close from the lending and that’s taking longer because we didn’t have the right documents. And it’s like “Oh my gosh, how many problems can happen in one thing?” But we’re almost there. We’re almost to the closing table. And we’re here, the final walkthrough, just a day or two before closing. The point is stuff happens, right? And if you keep a level mind. If you talk to your agent here’s usually a solution to these problems. And so realize going into a transaction, whether you’re buying or selling, there’s going to be problems, but you can find solutions to these problems and you can get to the closing table.
Real Estate Agent That You Can Trust
The point here is I just want to put you in the right mindset when you’re buying or selling a house. It can be very emotional, it can cause a lot of disruption in your life. I get it. Buying a house is not easy. Selling a house is not easy. There’s a lot of work that comes with it and it’s a big deal in your life, but you don’t have to do it too often. So it’s okay. You’ll get through it. Trust your agent. Find solutions and you’ll make it to the closing table. You’ll either get that check or you’ll get those keys. And that’s what we’re looking for. And that’s what we’re aiming at. So guys hope this was helpful as you’re thinking through the reality of real estate transactions and all the challenges that come with it.
If you haven’t yet, please subscribe to the channel, be a part of the team Sztanyo. Please like this video and comment below. I would love to hear some of your horror stories. Cause I feel like everyone’s got a horror story about their hardest real estate transaction. Leave that in the comment below. We will talk to you next time. Thanks.