05/27/25 Zestimates Aren't Real - LIVE w/Core Team Hawaii

I can talk to their broker. Sorry, you caught us in the middle of dealing with the, what's the word I'm looking for? Dealing with the combativeness, passive aggressiveness, basicness of someone for no good reason. Just for no good reason. That's ridiculous. Anyway. Good morning. Good morning. So today I thought about this client. I had a conversation with one of our clients while pricing their home, and they talked about the Zestimate. And this is a common conversation in all of real estate. So I was like, you know what, let's make that be a thing for today's live. So we're going to talk about how the Zestimate could be right, but it could be low, it could be high. It really isn't a great tool. It may be a good thing for you to monitor general market trends. Like if your Zestimate goes up and your neighbor's estimate goes up, and so then probably the market's going up. And if your Zestimate goes down and your neighbor's goes down, and probably the market's going down, but you're definitely not making executive decisions based on that. Hey, can you hear us? What do you mean? No, no, no. It's almost as if there's like a playback. I sound like I'm at a concert. No, I don't hear it. Okay. I'm talking on stage somewhere or something. No? Okay. Anyways, it's just me. You're tripping. I'm tripping. Is that caffeine? Yes. You're faded on that caffeine. I had this protein shaking that caffeine in and I didn't know. We will be getting some of our client reviews and stuff like that. As always, go here to coreteamhawaii.com. Go to the very bottom. So here's the top. You're not plugged in. Oh, I was plugged into my charger. I'm going to take that then, your charger. Go. Yeah. Okay. Thanks. All right. So go to coreteamhawaii.com. You guys know the drill. Scroll to the bottom. Scroll to the very bottom. Fill out this contact form. And five days a week, our assistant's ready to hit you back almost immediately unless she's on a call with someone else. And on those other two days, the team tries to get to you as soon as possible. So yeah, go to us for any and all real estate needs that you may have. First, I want to read this review from Robert, whose home we just listed and sold. This is on our Zillow profile. I actually wanted to go and find the one bad review we have. I was going to find it and read it. But long story short is these people that we never actually worked with. I didn't know we had one. We have one on Zillow and none on Google. It's all five-star reviews. We have one on Zillow and these unhappy, miserable people who we did a consult with. You could feel the unhappiness. And we never worked with them. Long story short, they were looking for someone to help him. So it was a home that was going through probate or maybe something to do with the trust attorney, I forget. But basically, the one uncle felt like, I should get more money. I don't want to take care of my mom. So we couldn't create a creative solution? I couldn't tell him, uncle, because I'm Derek from YouTube. I can make you get more money than your brothers. Yeah. Sorry, that's not how the trust is set up. I can't do that. And so he was upset. Also, the appraiser that I referred to them, I went and hit him up and I'm like, hey, do you remember these people? And he's like, yeah, they left me a bad review. They were just really vindictive. They didn't even get the outcome that they were hoping they could achieve. Nobody could get that outcome for them. And the unfortunate part, now it says 4.9 instead of 5.0 just because of these people. And I think Zillow, you got to pay them to get a bad review off. We didn't work with them. I didn't even know we had one. There is one. I don't even remember them. You never, only I did the consult. Oh, okay. Yeah. So you didn't even have to, you didn't have the pleasure. But here's our review. We just sold Robert's house and we did a really great job for him. So he says, I feel lucky to have been able to work with Derek and Aiden. I had a lot of renovation work that needed to be done on my home. From the time I contacted Derek to listing and selling it, it was over nine months. Derek helped me price the home correctly, but most importantly, helped me to line up and manage multiple contractors for paint, flooring, bathroom work, and more. His team remained dedicated throughout and the results speak for themselves. Sold over list. I really loved the, I love that Robert had like, like almost every seller had a higher price opinion than the market, but we had the trust in the relationship where I could go to him and say, you're too high. There's no data to support your opinion. It's, it's, it's what every seller has is this hopeful price opinion, but it's too high. Over time we had these conversations and he goes, I see it. Yeah. I see that we are too high, but then we, you know, we, we usually give the three prices, right? We give like, there's no reason we should sell for less than this. This is right around the sweet spot where we have a lower level of confidence than our guaranteed price, but still a reasonably high level of confidence. And then we have this higher price where we have a lower level of confidence, but maybe there could be the right buyer where we hit this really high price. Well, that's where we hit. And so it worked out where his expectations were managed properly and we sold really, really high and he's stoked. He's in Arizona now with his grandkids enjoying life. So thank you for the great review, Robert. Before we get to the, the team things or the safe surveys, our other feedback, self-brags, let's talk about Zestimate. How do you ever, you have clients who say, Hey, well, Zestimate says X. Yes. We'll talk about on the buy side. Cause I have an anecdote for the listing side on the buy side. How widely varying is it? Like sometimes is how do you feel like the Zestimate is compared to what it actually finally sells for even ones that you missed and your clients didn't get them? I feel like they're almost always off and depending on the neighborhood, they're either too high or too low, but they're never right. Really? Yeah. They're almost never right. But for the most part, like the buyer clients, I feel like are less married to the Zestimate number because the number also has a listing price on it. So they're on Zillow looking at actively listed properties. They're not necessarily like, not every client is doing that kind of research and looking at like, well, what are the Zestimates for everything else in the area? Well, I realized that Zillow, I don't know about for, I think Zillow recently changed it to where if it's listed, there is no more Zestimate. Yeah. I don't think that's even there anymore. If it's not listed, then there's a Zestimate. So they're not really married to it, nor are they doing like a ton of like, there are some who are like doing market research on their own and they're like, okay, well I think that this price is super high because this Zestimate around the corner is da da da da da. And I'm like, that Zestimate is super low for what that is. So that's not all that to say a Zestimate is not anything that you should be married to as far as value. What you do need to do is you need to contact an actual producing agent who knows the market and can run comps for you and see what that thing actually is. Because a Zestimate is just like a nationally website. We want you to click on us. So come over here. I'm going to give you one number that seems like it could possibly work for the area, but it doesn't. It doesn't take into account the lot size here in Hawaii, which is major. It may have two homes that are 2,500 square feet. One of them's on 10,000 square foot. The other one's on 6,000. And they're like, oh, these are pretty similar. So I'm going to give this estimate the same as that one. Trey Lockerbies Is it a corner lot, which means corner lot on a not so busy street. So that's good and has more yard. And in a way, a corner lot could have less privacy because more people can look in. But in a way- Nicole Lotta Q Oneava street. Trey Lockerbies A little bit more privacy because depending on how the yard is, you have less neighbors right on top of you. So if you're in one of these closely packed neighborhoods, corner lot, good because the next neighbors are across the street and diagonal. And then if you have trees and your yard's a little bit raised, nobody can see it when they're walking their dog. There's a lot of nuance to pricing a home. And in some communities, this estimate could be a little more accurate. Nicole Lotta Q Yeah. I would say like an ocean point. Trey Lockerbies Yeah. Like Laulani Tides. There's a hundred of two types of home, a three-bedroom and a four-bedroom. Actually, there's hundreds of A and B. And so it's fairly accurate in that community, I would think. Nicole Lotta Q Probably not. Trey Lockerbies But like Oneava. Nicole Lotta Q Yeah. It really just super depends. And just be prepared and be open to a different expectation setting when you actually talk to somebody who's plugged into the market because estimates are just not... They're not anything that you should be using as the be-all end-all for what you think a property is worth. Trey Lockerbies Yeah. Nicole Lotta Q Yeah. Trey Lockerbies So we have a seller who... The house on the same street was flipped. It was flipped by this local well-known flipper. It was beautiful. It was amazing. It had amenities and it was just done all the way to the top. And that home sold for a certain amount, over 2 million. And then so our sellers were like, when I talked to the seller about, hey, so we're getting close to potentially listing your home, that one only went for 2.4. And so since that one went for 2.4, it doesn't support our previous price. And the seller was he actually thought, well, I thought it was good that that went for that amount because ours would go for much, much, much, much more. And I was like, ooh, where'd you get that from? So, well, one of the reasons is that our Zestimate is much higher than their Zestimate. So I'm like, ooh, problem is that home is not sold for decades. And so Zestimate's more going off of tax record and just generality. Their home actually sold more recently and it was a unique circumstance. I won't get into it, but they wrote an aggressive offer and paid more than they probably otherwise would have because of a unique situation. So Zillow's going off of, well, this one sold for X this many years ago. The market trend has been Y. And so the outcome is Z, Zestimate. But Zillow doesn't understand that home probably sold for a little more than it should have in the past. And then the home that just got flipped, Zillow didn't know that it was flipped. Zillow didn't see the finishings and the pool and all of the stuff, the view. And so there's no way Zillow could be accurate. And I had our client to believe, well, if they sold for that much, we should sell for much, much, much, much, much more because our Zillow, our Zestimate as a percentage was 5% higher than theirs. And so we assume if they went for 2.4, then we'll go for 2.4 times 1.05. Core stands for craft of real estate. Craft of real estate. If it were so linear and objective, then there would be less value in the art and the craft of the thing. But since it isn't, and it's nuanced and it's subjective, here we go. So Zestimate- That's the thing too. Zillow can't tell you the... When we're looking at things, we have the ability to do that thing, observe like, hey, that one sold for this, but that's an outlier because really that's more than that property is worth. And that buyer- I just overpaid for a property. Right. So you look at things and just because it's sold for that, not necessarily... That doesn't bring up every home in the market. That's a specific thing. Maybe that's an assumption or something. And that person was willing to overpay to get- A VA assumption. Yeah. So there's a VA assumption where they've got a 2% rate. It's Amarillo 90 tides or something. So they paid 8.50 because they figure at 2%, if we keep it for a long time, within 24 to 30 months, we'll turn the corner and then we'll accelerate our wealth building because we've only got 2.25 on our loan. Whereas if someone gets a new loan on that home today at 6% for 8.50, they're paying 800 for the same house or whatever, 8.10. So that's just stuff that you cannot get from Zillow. You cannot. So for example, I just paid and I feel that I overpaid for this house, but it's ours now. And I bet you our Zestimate says something about what we paid for it, but I don't think I could sell it for my Zestimate today. I think if I sold it today... Something weird happened. I had to sell today. I don't think I sell it for what I just bought it for. The Zestimate is wrong. So it's a fun thing to follow, but it's not a good tool. It'd be like tracking your health on... Actually, it's probably less accurate than this. Yeah. But if you have one of those oval rings or... Oh, way less accurate than that. Like a Fitbit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You don't go into the doctor and I'm not saying we're physicians, but hey, I worked at Stanford in hundreds of surgeries and I don't know if physicians can vary too. I'm just saying, even at a place like Stanford. And in some ways, we're not physicians, but in some ways, I'll give us our respect. But you don't go to a physician and be, well, my Fitbit says... Oh, yeah. Actually, my Fitbit says my resting heart rate is 50, so that's wrong. Yeah. And my Fitbit says I could have more steak and I could afford a beer every so often because X, Y, Z. That's just not how you approach your medical provider. And so Zestimate may be a fine thing, something under a Fitbit for real estate, but we're not going to go and make big decisions based off of it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. All right. So we have some other feedback from clients? Yes. So let's go over a couple of safe surveys. This one is from Yoon Jeremiah. We're busy with moving right now, so we have not looked at it further, but we're still looking. It's just not many attractive values out there. Mahi's... Oh, I called myself Mahi. What the heck? Mahi has been great. Her pet peeve. And communication is good. Very good. Okay. Yeah. So even if you are not quite ready right now, we're going to keep following up with you and make sure that our team is made available to you for when you are ready. So they're busy with their move. They got a PCS coming up soon, and the right thing hasn't popped up yet. That doesn't mean that we're not following up with them all the time to make sure that we have our finger on the trigger. Okay. What's the next one? This one... This is Robert, the seller that we just did our review on. It's not verbatim same, right? No, it's not. They were great. It's similar, though. Okay. They worked with me for over nine months trying to get the house ready. Biggest thing was holding out with the contractors. I started with you guys July or August 2024. I want to give a shout out to Daniel. I went to the... What's the Japanese word? The Lantern Festival? What is it? Shin-Yuan. Shin-Yuan Lantern. Yeah, we went last night. You ever gone to that? Not in years. Probably not. I think I went once as a kid. High school. It's always Ala Moana. Oh, so Jody went to one before, too. But I went last night and met a few people. And one was a fan. He's like, hey, are you the realtor? And his name is Daniel. I'm pretty sure it's Daniel. And he had this Chamorro, this Guam brand on crowns. So I was like, hey, are you Chamorro? And then he's like, yeah, my wife's Hawaiian, a Chamorro, da, da, da. So shout outs to him. And also, bruh, this has nothing to do with real estate. So irritating. These young girls. You're at a quasi-funeral, right? Yes. Yeah. You're putting out lanterns for your... It's like a mass funeral. Yeah, a mass memorial. Yeah. And so everyone got to get down to the water, release their lanterns. But the more people pile in, the deeper the crowd starts getting. So now the people who want to launch their lanterns, they're not ankle deep. They're, like, waist deep. Yeah. Because you got to get past the content creators. Oh, my God. These mothers. Bruh, these girls. People get people crying. Who knows if they just lost their loved one and now they're doing this, whatever. And they try to launch their lanterns. Nobody can get to the water. And then you got these girls like, get me, get me. And I get it. Like, Kenji gets it from a media person. You got the lights in the background, all the lanterns. Dope shots. I get it. But, like... But move. Stop being so tone deaf. Read the room. Bruh. So... Influencers in the wild. You know me, yeah. So I say something. Yeah. You splash them. Which is also awkward because it's, like, a funeral. You don't bring that energy. Yeah. But I just kind of try and find my way. Hey, plenty lanterns still trying to come down. And then those girls, like, kind of look. Make a little bit room. Like, okay, get me again. Get me again. I just want to push them in the water. Oh my god. I just want to push it like so your hair is all wet. Dunk them. Yeah, yeah. But it was a cool thing. It was a cool celebration of Hawaii culture. And I recommend going for anyone who can go. I do not recommend parking in Ala Moana. Where did you guys park? Bruh, almost an hour. I forget. Oof. Of the shopping center. Ooh! Yeah. Where would you go? They estimated 40,000 plus people. So all of Ala Moana was… You know what I would do? Next, if I go again, I'm going to park far like Ward, Kaka'ako. I'll drop my family. You got to park the other way. I'll park somewhere far. Yeah. And I'm going to bring a bicycle. And I'm going to bike down to the beach park. Yeah. And then… You got to park more northbound. Because you're going to get stuck behind all those people. Yeah. Closer to Moana Freeway, like H1N1. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it kind of sucked. It was beautiful. You know what? Another interesting non-real estate story. Kind of. Adjacent. Furniture shopping. Okay. Oh, yeah. You guys doing that? So we already did. And I went into Inspiration, which… No hate to Inspiration. Local furniture… I don't know if they're local, but anyways. I don't know either. They're here. Yeah. A furniture company. And I get the two ladies when I walk in. And I'm kind of dressed like this. This is what made me think of… I looked at the thing and I'm like, Oh, I look like a big top producer today. I walk in and the ladies kind of look at me. And they just move. Let me keep going. I saw, I go, do you guys work here? And they're like, yeah. So I kind of asked for help. And then I could tell the vibe was just like, This is ******* no more money. Really? You know why though? Because they're like… It's less just furniture and it's more like design, right? It's boujee. Yeah, it could be boujee. Like, I had a friend who worked there. And that was like… The whole lifestyle was that. You know, like the way they dress and everything. They're like design consultants. So I'm wearing t-shirts, slippers, hat. I'm eating popcorn from Target. Of course you are. I'm eating popcorn. I'm like, hey, you guys. I'm looking for a kitchen table. Wiping your buttery hands on all their furniture. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, not really. But… So she goes, she's like, Oh, this is the dining section. You can look around here and then… Oh wow. So she just like let you go? Like, show yourself the things you cannot buy? Like… Yeah. That's how I felt. So I want… But I was thinking like… How do I… How do you make sure you don't get the business? No, no. I was like, do I want to flex, you know? Like… Of the 70-something homes, you know what I mean? You know. Of the… You know. But I was like, ah. No need. I just let them go. That's cute though. I love that for you. That experience. All right. You got… Before we bring Jodi in, you got any nuggets you want to drop on them? No. Okay. Oh, sure. Oh, we have comments? Aloha, amazing core team. Hello, Famous Flex. What's up, Ethan? He's here. What's up, Steven Camacho? Soy Sauce Boss. Lily says… Auntie Ma here. Hi, Lily! Zestimate drove me nuts when we converted our leasehold to Feast Simple. It was never closed. Stuff like that. Oh, that's a good… Zillow could never. Could never. Yeah. Best thing that ever happened. You were talking about these people. Shout out to Derek and Aiden, who we met at the Kapili open house this past Saturday. Oh, we just talked about you guys. Just talked about you guys. Oh, not on here. But here's the thing. If a builder sourced you… You know, like, if they procure you to go there, we can't represent you for that builder. And I… We actually talked to them. After we met you, we talked to them and said, Hey, what's the… Can we grab, like, clients who already know us from our content? Can we talk to them? And basically, they're like, you can't steal the clients for here. Because we got them here with our food trucks and our shave ice. But if clients connect with you elsewhere, etc., then that's fine. So, very straightforwardly, it was super nice to meet you guys. And if you have any real estate needs outside of Ho'opili, even if it's within Ho'opili, hit us up and we'll… We can't earn, but to whatever degree we can consult you, we'd be happy to. And then who knows? Maybe you guys end up buying elsewhere outside of there and we can work with you in a full-fledged fashion. So, thanks for saying hi. Interesting story. Right before you guys met me, I got bit by a dog. Yeah, yeah. Hit me up. I'll tell you the story. Okay. Also, Ashley, when Zillow makes a suggestion for a most likely to be accepted offer, is that typically anywhere in the ballpark? I've never really looked at that feature, but I want to say no. No. And you know what else isn't a feature that is accurate either? I've seen the more likely to sell or get an offer than 99% of other homes around it. And then that's on the market for like 100 days. So, all of that is just not real. So, no. In everything that I see in the economy, in business, I look at it from a marketer and a business person's perspective. So, I could see something at the gym like, more likely to lose weight if you do kettlebells. Like, it's all some marketing. Just all the steery motions to a point of conversion that leads to transactional dollars. And so, no. Zillow could never. Melissa, I like that beach influencer pose. Yeah. Especially at a memorial. Some things are meant to be enjoyed in the moment, absent of capturing with your phones. I agree. Alamana sucks for parking on a regular day. What is that? Say that word. Natuzzi. That's not a hard word to say. I don't know how to say it. Just because it's not Hawaiian, all of a sudden you cannot pronounce it? I don't know how to say that word. And I don't think you do either. Can you say jacuzzi? I mean, it's really, you're placing an N in a T. We don't know what the branding or what the language. That's the same thing. People come here and they're like, oh, I cannot say it when it's like some basic Hawaiian word. And fact is, they can't. Like you can't. Exactly. But I can do both. I don't think you can. I just did. But I love that you think you can. I just did. I love the confidence, Derek. Just did. Leave me a comment if I just did say Natuzzi. No need, leave him a comment. He always asks, like, leave me one comment if you agree with me. Never mind. Are homeowners insurance going up in the 808? Any insurance companies canceling their coverage? I think that whole insurance issue has peaked already. And if anything, we're on the downswing to stabilization. USAA at some point was not insuring anything over a million. And then USAA was taking no new policies during a small period of time. And then there were other carriers that were being very selective. And a little bit more. As the free market does. A little bit more discerning. More discerning, yeah. And maybe, you know, they're not wanting to. It could be that that month or that quarter, they're spreading out their risk, right? Like insurance companies got to the point where they're like, we don't want a condensed amount of risk in a certain area. But Hawaii is historically safe. You could be, like, just because you get struck by lightning in one spot. Now no one wants to go to that spot, right? But that doesn't, like, the chances of lightning striking again are few, right? We had the Lahaina fires and that was horrible. But we historically don't have a ton of, we don't have fires. We don't get hit by hurricanes. And so whether it was a mix of government intervention and or the free market playing out, we always kind of knew that insurance companies would want to insure and capitalize on Hawaii because we just historically do not have a lot of disaster. Now, the Gulf of Mexico, Florida, like you can, it's a crapshoot. It's a ping pong like thing every summer and fall that hurricanes happen there. But Hawaii is in general safe. So that's a nuanced question. Depends what you're buying and where. Is it flood insurance? Is there not? Is it in a condo, in a CPI condo, single family community? It really just depends. But in general, you can get insurance. I just got insurance for our home. And there can be some that are more liberal than others. Like we, you have a weird situation. Maybe we push you to all state. If you're bundling with State Farm, maybe you go to State Farm for your homeowners, but you broker out of State Farm for your hurricane. It really just depends. So I wouldn't say necessarily that they're going up, but they did go up. Yeah. They went up this past year. Now it's kind of like evening out a little bit. That explains why when we looked into a quote, USA denied. Yeah. USA is its own thing. Great customer service on the phone, but also expensive. And also, they're not taking some policies in Hawaii. You want to let Jodi transition? Yes. I'll read this next one. The best thing that never happened. I missed the first part of the live, but yeah, we were talking to Kendall when you guys came up. We had some agents since 2020 for three transactions, soon to be five. Otherwise, we would have chosen you. Oh, okay. Well, we understand that. If anything changes with your current agent and you need a different solution, you know that we'll be here. Either way, it was super nice to meet you guys. And thanks for saying hi. What's up, Jodi? Hi. How are you? So good. You know, Dave Ramsey is better than I deserve. Jodi's is so good. So good. What are the interest rates like? And what were they like? So they went up last week a little bit, but let's compare it to last Tuesday. They're a little bit better. Okay. Yeah, but a little bit better. Same base rate. So this is technical. So for VA, if a 6.25 would have been at zero points, a 6.25, there's a little bit of lender credit. And then conventionally, same. Conventional is the same, 6.75. 6.25, 6.75. Yep. So like we talked about last week and we spent a little more time on, in recent history and in the near future, in terms of predicting the market, don't do it. It'll be somewhere low to mid sixes probably. Now, if we find ourselves in a significant spike, depending on the home we're looking at, we're going to try to get you more credits or get you more aggressively seek that 2.1 buy down or whatever the case may be. We'll always get it if we can, but we will judge the seller's leverage versus ours. But in general, and thinking of should you buy a home or when should you time it? It's a personal thing. You do it when you, your spouse, your kids, your bank account, when all of your spirituality, when all these things are ready and aligned, that's when you buy a house and should always be working to get them aligned. So what's new with you? Real estate or non? Nothing. Nothing? No, actually I'm not. I just finished my last soccer tournament as Dashie Desi, Dashie Boy Desi's coach. Oh. So my six-year-old. Done coaching. I have one more practice on Wednesday and that is it. Like I'm done. Like I'm free. You're not going to coach again? Uh-uh. Jodi is one, very competitive. You're very positive for such a competitive person. I feel like sometimes us competitive people are a little not always so optimistic. Yeah, I think that, um, I don't know. I'm always positive. You're always positive? There's just like a, there's a, I don't know what it is. Yeah. But I'm, you know, I always see like the better thing. Yeah. Yeah, you do. But Jodi also is, is like a soccer fanatic. Yeah. And, um, so you've been coaching, I guess. Been coaching and it's, it's a lot. And I have like seriously mad props to anybody that does youth sports, that coaches youth sports. Um, it's a huge commitment, you know, for, for Dash's team, it's club. It's three times a week plus games on the weekends. Most of the time, both days of the week. So it's Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Okay. You know, even though it's only a two-hour practice, it's getting there a little bit early to prep in. And then it's leaving the office at a certain time to get there. I mean, it's just like when I thought about it, I just saw, I just knew he needed a coach and I was like, well, I mean, I'm obviously qualified. Like, you know, and then I got into it and then I was like, wow, this is actually a lot of time. You have to, I think what you have to be. So when I used to coach basketball, the head coach was a little intense, a little much, a little like, bruh, chill out. But like, to your point, it takes so much that it would be hard to find a balanced person who can, who also wants to commit all of themselves to that endeavor. The chances are, pick a sport, pick a craft, someone who's really into it. They're not going to, they're not going to be perfect. And so if they're a little crazy, you kind of just have to live with some of that. Because to be, it takes a lot to coach. Takes a lot. And it's like, it's so fulfilling and it was so great, you know, with obviously Dash and our experience together. And also the other boys who have really grown on me. Yeah. And seeing how much they've developed is crazy. Dash, was there any hard points coaching your own son? Because when I coached basketball, well, my son wasn't super into it. He's not an obsessive, like, athletic person. Not obsessed with it. And my other son, just, there's a ball, he's going to throw it against the wall and like, throw it, see how far he can run and get it. Throw it over there and see if he can dive. This son is not that. And so there are times where I'm like, I'm too intense. I'm failing as an adult coaching him. That was hard. And I had to learn and reflect. But your son, he's pretty competitive and like, into it, right? So is it easy to coach him? He's pretty coachable. I mean, he's, he is very coachable, but he is super intense and just too, like, you know, poor sport, cries every practice, you know, very, it's, it's a lot. And so what I did, and that's actually why I am leaving. And it's more so it's actually the, it's a bigger detriment to the team. Like, I actually, it's worse for the boys that I'm leaving other than Dash Desi. Yeah. Like, so like all the rest of my players, they're. They benefit from having you. Yes. But it's put a little bit of strain on your mother, son relationship, having to dial him in when he's. Yeah. And it's like. The same, but different. It's the same, but different. But, and it's just like, it's not easy to coach your kid when it's like your kid. And right. So when he's acting a certain way, it's like, would I have responded that way if it was a different kid or would I have, you know what I mean? Would I have in both directions? Like, so would I have let him get away with it? Yeah. Well, and, or would I have been that harsh? I was certainly a better coach to other kids than my own. And so when they asked me, they're like, Hey, cause I texted them. I said, this is not good for my relationship with my son. So I'm going to stop coaching a few months later. They said, can you come back? Like, and I was like, okay, but I'm not coaching my son at any time. I'm not near him. He's on that side of the court. I'm on the other side of the court because I'm not, it's all me. You know, he's just a kid. It's my fault if I'm not doing the right thing, you know, handling it perfectly. I'm going to take transition us back to real estate. How will you always do business with your family? Or will you ever refer them out? Will you always do your family, auntie, uncle, your cousin, your Hanai, Calabash, friend's cousin, or at times do you like, ah, no, I'm going to get you someone else. No, I might. So really, I might not. Yeah. I might, I might refer them out. Yeah. Because again, I mean, you know, from the people that we, who connect with us from this YouTube channel, the alignment is so there, whereas just because your cousin or your cousin's friend or your spouse's coworker has a real estate need and you have a real estate solution doesn't mean that the alignment's perfect. And I would, especially at this point in my career, I want, whether, you know, you're related to me or you're my cousin's friend, or whether you're just a YouTube client, if we feel, actually, if you're a YouTube client, it's probably not an issue. But if you're, if you're a stranger, like we get referred people sometimes from other agents, like an agent in San Diego. Hey, can you help this person? If we see that it's an obvious not fit, we try and get them with the right fit. Rather than just, oh, we got to make the money. It's like, I think John Doe would be great for you. And I'm going to help you guys make that connection. Yeah. Oh, okay. If it's not a fit, a hundred percent. Yeah. And we're not referring them out. We're just like, usually it's typically, they're like, well, this lender said this. And if it's not a fit, we'll say, okay, go work with that lender. And, and all the- But you never, well, I guess because people shop lenders more, but have you never been, they're not shop, like they're not talking to another lender, but they're just really difficult with you. And you can't meet, their expectations are unmeetable. You never like, hey, you should talk to my friend at so-and-so bank. No. Never. I don't have anyone. Why would I want to give a difficult client to someone that like, you know, it's like, oh, you should go talk to, I don't, I wouldn't want to refer you to anybody that I would refer you unless I'm like, okay, let me find a crappy loan officer and then I'll refer to them. Someone at a different stage in the business might like someone who's new and starting out might just have the tolerance to put up with certain things. I don't know anyone like that. So, so I guess, you know, the only other people I know are people that own mortgage companies like me and do production. And so it would be like, all of my friends would be like. If you don't want to. Yeah. Like, even if I tried, they would be like, nah, I'll go fast. You know, it made me think of this. We were, my wife has several coworkers and there are other agents, you know, like the other spouses who are agents and, you know, there are other affiliations, but one of the coworkers, I wasn't even there. I went and met him at a happy hour. When I left, the person said like, oh yeah, I have this, I'm trying to buy something, but my agent's not really as good. And then the one guy, he's like, Derek, Michelle's husband. Are you crazy? He's one of the top agents. And my wife was like, no, no, no, no, no, no. Like my husband, you don't need to use him. In fact, he'll get you with the right fit. Like, don't feel pressured to use him. And he was like, no, you should use him. Like, you gotta have him help you. Are you crazy? And she appropriately, so she's like, no, no, no, no, no. Like maybe, maybe not, but you just have to feel comfortable. And I looked at that situation and I was like, yeah, I would start with the conversation and see. Yeah. But if I don't think I'm going to be able to be the best fit for you, I'll tell you. You know? Oh yeah. I mean, if we're not a fit, I didn't know that was the context of the question. If we're not a fit, we're not referring out, but we're certainly sharing our 20 years of experience and what the reason we're telling you what we're telling you. Yeah. And if you're not going to take it for what we're giving, then we're not fit. What's one of the, this doesn't have to be negative or bad or crap talking. What's one of the craziest things that you've had to do or like experiences or coincidences? Those are craziest things in the business. I mean, the craziest things in the business, I mean. Is there anything that comes to mind? Like this one time we were going to close on the loan and it got struck by lightning. The house got burned down or anything like that. I mean, there were, that did happen where we were about to close and on a purchase and those, the Kailua landfall happened or what the rock fall, the storm, and then the rock fell. And then all these things had to happen after that. So after that happens, even if you're, if you're just in the general area of where it occurred, it's like reapproval, new appraisal, new, new everything. Um, and it, and then like, you know, insurance does a memorandum and they just halt policies. So then we can't close. And so that's anyone in the nine, six, seven, three, four zip code. The whole Kailua. Yes. Oh, that's, that's unfortunate. Cause so I have my trusty map pulled up and if, so I don't know where that landslide happened and what year that was, but I want to think it was like Collahill hillside or something. That's where it was. Was it? Yes. And so she's talking about like this area right here and there was like a hillside over here, but Kailua extends to, you know, like all the way over here. And those two things are not relevant to one another, but they are the same zip code. Right. And so, and there's, you know, delays, contractual things, trips and all that. I mean, that kind of stuff happens. I have one where a kind of famous person was like on his deathbed kind of, and the family was, he was still totally with us, um, mentally, but yeah. And they were like, it was this race to get the loan approved so that he could sign. Wow. Yeah. And when I, when we had. You can't discriminate. Not a notary could decide this person's not of sound mind to sign. And I feel, but as a vendor, as an agent, you can't discriminate based on race, gender age. And so someone's 90, someone could be 104 years old. You still give them a 30 year loan. Yep. Yeah. So I remember that because it was like, you know, you don't want to say like, well, why can't we rush this? Because like, we don't want our borrower to die. Like it was like that. And yeah. And so, and it was, I think it was like a cascade. It was like three different transactions. Like it was, that was kind of stressful. Yeah. But we got it done. Yeah. I was going to bring up prequal preapproval. Go for it. So on yesterday, even though we say it all the time, what's going to happen, this is the reason we need to pull your credit because we have to run your automated approval. And we, your realtor is going to be out there taking you to showings and this, that, and the other, right? So in this particular case, it's not an agent that I know. And they were fine with, I was going to ask you like, what is the technical rule? Like if you're taking them to showings, are they, there's, they have to be preapproved? Not necessarily. However, we tend to only do showings with someone who's preapproved. As you can imagine, especially when you're as popular and do as good of a job marketing as we do, all sorts of people would love to spend time and look at houses. I mean, it's just a fun thing. Yeah. I mean, you could be on a vacation and want to do that. It's a cool thing, but we have to try and commit to people who are committed. And if you've gotten the lender, unfortunately it can be a little, if you're not an organized person and you have to get all these tax returns and stuff to lender and then have them run credit, we know that if you go through all that, you're pretty dang serious about buying a home. And so, yeah, we, we do typically require preapprovals and rare exceptions. We might show without preapproval for certain situations and where you might, what you might be thinking is a lot of showings, especially when you get higher on price point, but some showings period owner occupied, they don't want to let you see the home unless you display a preapproval. You show them. So is a seller's agent allowed to say like, no, show me the preapproval or I'm not letting you view the property? Certainly. It happens not insignificant amount of the time. But that's, that's just strategy slash preference slash what? It's usually that's owner occupied and or a decent to high price point of vacant, you know, $200,000 condo. They don't really care if you see it or whatever. But if it's staged, that's another thing too, if, if something staged and not approved, people go and they make the stuff dirty or they steal a vase or something, you know, something like that, that could be an issue. Yeah. So, so anyways, they, you know, I've been working with them. I really like them, their referrals from, um, not only past clients, but also just sphere and they, you know, haven't allowed us to review credit yet. And so I'm like, okay, listen, that's totally fine. Based on all the information collected, I, I have a very small concern, little to none concern. Like you're going to get qualified, but you're not okay. You're not. And so what's going to happen is it's going to be a Sunday and I know you're saying this isn't going to happen, but it's going to be a Sunday. You're gonna all of a sudden find out you go see a house, decide you want to submit an offer on it, find out that you have three hours to submit the offer. And there's already two offers in hand. This is the story I always tell because that's, what's going to happen. And then you're going to call us and you're going to be like, so sorry. I know you said this was going to happen, but two weeks of work condensed into the next hour. And it's seven 30 at night on a holiday Monday. Right. In this example. Right. So anyways, the reason I'm bringing it up is because the agent said, oh, it doesn't matter. Just send a prequal. And I'm like, there's two offers in hand and you're going to go in with an offer with a prequalification letter instead of a preapproval. Do they understand the difference? They understand the difference. Was it, um, I can't say, uh, on, on here, but was the agent from here? No. Okay. It was. Because that brokerage has a lending arm that. Yes, they do. They call a prequalification. They call a preapproval, a prequal. And they claim that preapproval is a misnomer. And the rest of the industry is wrong for calling. The whole country is wrong for calling it a preapproval. And they are the only ones. Correct. They call it a prequal. Right. Because a preapproval only happens once the, they're basically calling a preapproval, a CLA, a conditional loan approval. Yeah. So I could see why one of their agents says send a prequal because they're the only group of people that calls it a prequal when it's a preapproval. Yeah. So, so that happened. And then, so that is kind of like an uphill battle because like when it's with you guys, we're saying that we're like preaching the same thing. Yeah. And then I'm telling them like, you've got to let me pull your credit. Like if the offer gets accepted. Yeah. You know, that means I'm, I just issued a document saying that we're all G like this is happening. This is closing. And I'm like explaining to them, I know it's not all about me, but like part of our brand and our reputation is like, we're closers. Yeah. If you're getting this preapproval you or prequal even you, the other side is expecting, oh, this is specific for mortgage. This is no problem whatsoever. Right. So I'm explaining that. And the agent's like, no, just send the prequal. And I'm like, okay. During, during COVID when there was 20, 30 offers on a home, it's extremely competitive. There was a time where I audited it and it was like 15, 20% of the time. Our feedback we got from listing agents was we accepted you either in part because you're working with Jodi's team or sometimes it'd be because like that was the thing that got you guys accepted. And so, yeah, you got to protect that reputation. Yeah. And so that's what I wanted. That's one of the things I was going to bring up because I'm like, why would an agent just be so cool with submitting an offer that had, that is a competing offer? And I said, is it just because you're like, man, this is an inconvenience you're calling I'll tell you what it is. I know what it is. Sorry to interrupt you. Agents, especially ones who don't have a lot of business want to, they want, they're begging for the relationship from the buyer. And so the buyer has all the leverage in that relationship between buyer and buyer's agent. And so if the buyer is just like, I don't want to deal with the whole credit, just show me homes. Okay. Like I'll be a subservient yes person for you and we'll do what you need. And then we'll trail behind like commitment and action should be here. Well, well, commitment can be lower than the corresponding action because I know once you fall in love with the home, we can write the ship. We'll get, we'll get your commitment up and we'll have this agreement signed and we'll be committed and we'll get Jody to do the thing. And now you're handcuffed to me. Even if we don't get this one, we'll get the next one. Cause now I own you, but I'll trail and I'll let commitment be low and action be high to earn you. And there's some level of like, if we're logical and transparent and fair, and we still have to feel each other out a little, and you know what the circumstances where we do something similar to that. But for the most part, we have good, appropriate business relations where we're committed to them. They're committed to us, you know? And that's usually what's happening there. And you know what? It almost sounds like I'm throwing shade at buyers in general. I'm not, I get it. If I didn't watch YouTube and connect with these people and like, oh, they're going to be my agents. They're going to be my loan officer. And I just got, I clicked on something on a site and someone's calling me. I don't know who you are. Who's your lender? Jody? Yeah. Maybe I don't want you on my credit yet. Maybe I just wanted you to show me a house and I do. You got to earn me a little bit. Cause after all, I'm the client. I get it. Those are different circumstances than typically what we have in our business. Right. Especially when it comes from here. Yeah. You too. We got Michael, couple questions. Michael got a couple of questions. What Michael got a, what does happen when a borrower dies and the spouse is not on the loan? It depends how tenancy is held. Um, but well, as far as the loan. So it's a good question. The technical answer like black and white is you're supposed to refinance the loan. Yeah. Um, but what. Oh, they'll never check. Yeah. What happens in, in practicality versus theoretics is as long as you continue making those on-time payments, there's no red flag. There's no nothing that is even done, um, to, to have that need. Right. Cause a lot of times the, the remaining, the surviving spouse doesn't always, isn't always able to refinance. Yeah. And that's a really tough situation because he or she may not have the credit or the income. Actually, if they're not on the loan, they probably didn't have the credit or the income. And so now they're not going to be able to get the loan. Right. So I have a, a, a client, long-time client that we helped them buy. Then we helped them refi and then husband passed away. She's an artist. She makes money, but not on paper. Um, and so she literally continued on making the payments with, you know, she called me, what do I do? She was panicking and, um, husband died unexpectedly. And, um, anyway, she paid, it's been a decade. She called me like three or four years ago and she was like, the loans paid off. Like we made it like we're in the clear. Yeah. I think you told me about that. Cause we have, I have a, they're not, she's not even a client, but she's an Instagram follower. I think a YouTube follower, I'm not sure, but her and her husband are divorced. And so she had asked the question of, you know, she asked a similar question. So death or divorce similar in this instance to say the, the loan was in the husband's name, but then they divorced, but then she's still living there and they're amicable and they're going to let her still live there for quite a while. It would be clean to refi and get him off of the home and off the loan. But if the rate's good and he doesn't mind, he's not going to buy. Yeah. The wife can just keep making the payment, you know, the ex-wife could just keep making the payment. Now we're not recommending you do that, but you could probably could, it'd be fine in theory. Herbert Mobley or, uh, Aloha surf is down. It is. I took my son bodyboarding and it was already getting smaller swell the day before for Jody. Ryan says, do you soft pool or hard pool for a pre-approval? So typically, I mean, we can do both, but soft pool is not a pre-approval. So I guess the answer is hard pool. Hard pool. Okay. Someone says sponsored by mini honey water. You know what? I don't mind giving mini honey, some shine. When I first came to Hawaii as a small kid, this is like the water bottle I drank. And so it's, there's like a nostalgia level. So this one for me, I like it. This isn't even mini honey water. I filled it up at the gym because I drank all the water. This is water fountain water. But anyways, I like mini honey. Um, okay. We got to go. I actually have to go meet some family for lunch. You have to go help clients. You have a signing. Oh, cool. All right. Aloha guys. We'll see you in the next one. Go to coreteamhawaii.com. Go now.