Things You Need to Know Before Buying Your House

May 7, 2024

134.  Things You Need to Know Before Buying Your House

Imagine buying your dream home, only to find it’s a nightmare in disguise. Bob Thompson shares his eye-opening experience as a new homeowner in Portsmouth, Virginia, where his excitement quickly turned to dismay. Discover the harsh realities of outdated electrical systems, problematic neighbors, and endless repairs. Bob's story is a stark reminder of the crucial need for thorough pre-purchase inspections and the importance of knowing your neighborhood inside and out.  We dive deep into the risks of overlooking essential home inspections and how they can expose you to unforeseen damages and massive expenses. Our discussion explores the ethical considerations of disclosing defects and the urgent steps required after disaster strikes. This episode is your guide to smart homeownership, helping you make informed decisions and avoid the common traps that snag unprepared buyers.

Here’s how you can follow or reach Bob:

Website: whatbobthinks.com

Email: bobthompson0429@gmail.com 

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Here's the link to the trailer for the documentary film I'm making: Built to Last: Buyer Beware.

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Transcript

George Siegal: 0:00

One of the things I really want to do with this podcast is share more of your stories of things that have happened to you as homeowners. I think by sharing these experiences, we can help each other avoid making the same mistakes or having the same things happen. There are so many challenges with building or buying a house, and these challenges extend to renting a house or an apartment, so I posted online asking for stories and got a response from my guest today. Bob Thompson had some pretty significant things happen when he bought his house. He probably could have avoided many of them. So sit back and listen to Bob's story. He's going to share some things that you should pay close attention to so you can avoid having them happen to you. I'm George Siegal, and this is Homeowners Be Aware the podcast that teaches you everything you need to know about being a homeowner. Bob, thank you so much for joining me today.

Bob Thompson: 0:56

Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.

George Siegal: 1:02

Now I found you doing a shout-out, where I'm looking for people that are homeowners, that have had experiences to come on and share them. I think we can learn so much from hearing what other people go through. I know that the experiences I've had when I tell people they go, wow. I've got to be aware of that. So it sounds like you've had some interesting experiences. What did you learn becoming a homeowner or as a homeowner that you want to share with other people?

Bob Thompson: 1:23

Okay, so I bought my. We bought our first house in 2002. At the time I worked at the chemical plant. We were approved for 90,000 and we paid 84 for the house. This is in essentially, portsmouth, virginia. This house had been on the market for a year. We didn't get a home inspection. Our agent told us that we were getting a home warranty and that would cover everything, which was a complete and total disaster.

Bob Thompson: 1:50

The house was from 1940, the electricity had not been updated, so we had to deal with that. Floors were uneven, leaky windows. I think what, honestly, was worse than anything was not realizing who we had as neighbors. And this is no joke. The guy behind me was a 300-pound white power guy. We're talking Confederate flag in the front yard and that first Saturday I woke up to essentially white power music playing. Saturday I woke up to essentially white power music playing and the people that owned my house before me were black, which kind of makes me think that might be part of the reason that they moved. And we had a and there was any head roosters in the backyard. So we literally woke up, you know, saturday morning at 6am to the rooster and then, like an hour later, he's got this some sort of country white power music going on. It was a complete fiasco from beginning to end and, quite honestly, when we finally moved on from that house, that house had never been completed properly. It just never got fixed all the way.

George Siegal: 2:58

Now there's so many questions I have to ask you just based on what you've told me, and none of it is meant to be critical, because I've certainly made my share of mistakes.

Bob Thompson: 3:05

Oh, you're fine.

George Siegal: 3:06

You know, when it comes to choosing neighbors, that's something I don't think people give enough value to and you read about it. If you're on Next Door or if you're on Facebook groups, you hear about people that have horrible neighbors, where they either have barking dogs, they have people partying. I know when I got one of my first apartments in Clovis California, a biker gang moved in next to me and they always drove up their motorcycles late at night and had doing repair work and revving engines all the time. But that was an apartment. It's a lot easier to separate from a crummy apartment choice than it is from a crummy home buying choice. How difficult is that on a day to day basis? Was that for you to deal with?

Bob Thompson: 3:44

Honest to God, it was a teetotal nightmare because we had a neighbor on one side. She was a raving alcoholic Like she would literally. I've got old Facebook posts Like the night Obama got elected.

Bob Thompson: 3:55

I was like you know, presidents come and go, but if you haven't had a neighbor that's screaming at the moon at midnight, you haven't lived. I mean, she would just to the point of you couldn't understand words that were coming out of her mouth, but she'd be out front just going off. The neighbor on the left was originally a meth addict and she eventually died about a year after we moved in and of course the house got bought, rehabbed and good, proper neighbors moved in, but I dealt with two of the three of those neighbors for almost the entire time we lived there. The white power guy eventually put the house up for rent and moved on, but the crazy drunk neighbor was there until the day that I moved out.

George Siegal: 4:37

And how many years did you live there?

Bob Thompson: 4:40

We bought the house in 2002. I personally moved out in 2015, when I when I filed for divorce.

George Siegal: 4:48

quite honestly, yeah, that's a good gift to give the ex-wife to say here, take the house.

Bob Thompson: 4:53

And all it was.

George Siegal: 4:54

You know. Now you know, I'm thankful every day that we happen to. In the area that we live in, our little niche area, we have great neighbors, we have respectful neighbors. We have great neighbors, we have respectful neighbors, we have quiet neighbors. But a few blocks over you hear stories from people that have problems, so that's really something people need to investigate. You gave a great tip before we went on that you tell people now that you don't just buy a house, you have to know more about it. What is your drive-by tip? I thought that was great.

Bob Thompson: 5:24

Well, because I eventually got my real estate license and I have been a full-time real estate agent since 2007,. That was the greatest experience I possibly could have, because it was so monumentally bad that I instantly knew what I didn't want to do, and I really wanted to do a good job. It wasn't about just getting paid, but what I do is I tell all of my clients to do what I call the Friday night drive by. Every house looks pretty at Tuesday at two o'clock in the afternoon, because it's Tuesday at two o'clock in the afternoon, but you've got to ride by the house at night to figure out what's going on. Do you have is?

Bob Thompson: 6:03

Is the house next door, you know? Are they fighting and trying to kill each other all the time? Do they got 15 kids that they can't control? Do is it a biker gang? Is it a? Are they the party neighbors? Are they people you know that are just not of high caliber and can you know that are shady? To where you got to make sure you lock your car up at night because somebody is going to break in? These are the type of things that you absolutely have to look at, and that's even in the nicest of neighborhoods. It could be just as simple as little Joey is allowed to, you know, have his band practice in the garage, but yet they're still practicing at 11 o'clock at night and you've got little kids and they got to go to sleep. So it doesn't have to be anything major, but you should be aware of what's going on always.

George Siegal: 6:49

Yeah, and now you know, the kids could be running around with airsoft guns, they could have dogs that are very vicious. You know, I've heard I had a friend who had a couple of donkeys and the donkeys were eaten by some pit bulls in the neighborhood that were allowed to roam free, and so you just really never know where it's going to come from. You also want to go by on a bad weather day. I think you want to pick a day when it's raining or after it's rained for a couple of days. The problem is some people are limited by time. So you go, look, you fly into town, you look at a house for a couple of days, you put an offer down, you get it. You really can't do those rushed transactions, can you?

Bob Thompson: 7:28

Well, here's the thing You're not really supposed to and that's what you're. If you've got a real estate agent, that's their job and if they're not smart enough to figure out that on themselves, then it's your responsibility to say hey, I know that. Like, for instance, I live in Hampton Roads, which is Chesapeake, virginia, norfolk, virginia. For instance, I live in Hampton Roads, which is Chesapeake, virginia, norfolk, virginia, virginia Beach. We were built on a swamp that used to all be swampland, so we do have pockets to where, if the weather gets bad, the roads are going to back up a little bit. You're going day. Yeah, you should be able to ask whoever is getting let's be honest is getting paid to do their job. There's no excuse for them not to be able to. A check on that and B they should already know if they live in the area. I know for a fact that the worst parts of Chesapeake, norfolk and Portsmouth and Virginia Beach that are probably going to turn into swamp and it's my job to check on that, you know it just is.

George Siegal: 8:27

Yeah, I also tell people to check your local floodplain manager, research the history of the house because, yeah, you're right, a realtor in a perfect world would tell you all these things. You know, our realtor who I thought was decent never told us they were tearing up the entire street and cutting down all the trees to put in a new sewer line. Now you could make the argument that well, they improved the drainage in the neighborhood, so now you're not going to flood, but we didn't know that. We bought the house because of the tree-lined street and people just can't rely on other people. You really, if you're your own best advocate, it probably works out a lot better for you.

Bob Thompson: 9:03

A lot of ways and you should be able to do that. And if your agent gets mad at you, then that's on them. You have a right to ask those questions and do the due diligence, and sometimes people will just point blank lie to you. I've got a buddy of mine that I helped him find a house in 2008. And we were told and there was a mobile home park right across the street and we were told that that mobile home park was coming down. This is by the, the lead agent on the site that we were buying at. He point blank to my face and my client who, by the way, it's still one of my closest friends, you know was hey, well, they're tearing down the mobile home park. So no worries about that, because that was a legitimate concern, because these were nice condos that were going in Well. Here it is in 2024. That mobile home park is still alive and well.

Bob Thompson: 9:53

My buddy, irv still lives in the condo complex and we still laugh about it. You know, if I go to pick him up or we go have lunch or whatever, we still talk about what a ball face lie that that was. And that proves another point that remember, with condo complexes and HOAs. They don't have to follow their own rules or stick to their plan until they get typically 50 to 75% of those units in. So in Irv's case they originally they were going to build a pool and they were going to do a pool house and all of that type of stuff Never got done because when the economy changed they shut all that down. So just because they're offering you all of these beautiful amenities, if the complex hasn't gotten to that point yet, they're not required to give you squat. They're just not.

George Siegal: 10:41

Yeah, and I think people don't realize that if there is a board or a management team, the homeowners are the minority in that, until a certain point the builder actually has the most, or the developer has the most seats at the table, so they can operate at their own pace.

Bob Thompson: 10:57

Yeah, I mean. Look when the economy shifted last time you saw a lot of what used to be single family homes get turned into mixed use communities because basically the money ran out. Nobody could afford to buy $400,000 properties, so they switched them over to townhouses and condos and started going that direction. And that affects value, whether anybody likes it or not.

George Siegal: 11:19

It does. Now, the thing that the big red flag that hoisted when you first started talking was no home inspection, and I got to say what was your thought process there?

Bob Thompson: 11:30

I'm an idiot and I believed her.

George Siegal: 11:33

That's not why I asked you that.

Bob Thompson: 11:35

And even my father, because she point blank told me that we were getting a home warranty and at the time home warranties had really just started taking off and maybe she truly believed that. I don't think she was deliberately lying, I just think she didn't, as I found out later, know her ass from a hole in the ground quite honestly, and she was like well, you don't need a home inspection, you're getting a home warranty That'll cover your electrical and all your other stuff. And come to find out it didn't cover squat and it was just a nightmare.

George Siegal: 12:09

No, those things are not everything that they're crafted or cut out or they're sold to us as and usually when I talk to people in the service industries that are repair people, plumbers, electricians there's a reason that there are certain people that are available to work for those companies. They pay the lowest amount, so it's a company that needs the business and isn't necessarily the cream of the crop at that particular task. They may be good. I've had some good people come out when I've had those, but I've also had a lot of bad people.

Bob Thompson: 12:32

No, I agree, and I honest to God, I don't even recommend them. Now, if I'm working with a buyer and a seller wants to throw one in, hey, that's fine, throw it in there, it might end up being worth your while. But fine, throw it in there, it might end up being worth your while. But nine out of 10 times it's been my experience that they fight. You know fixing much of anything and they will nickel and dime and nickel and dime. You know to fix something and do everything in their power to have to replace it. That's just how I feel about it. I've always been honest about it.

George Siegal: 12:58

Yeah, and I think the lesson that you learned and unfortunately there are a lot of people that were doing that during COVID and houses in a hot market would say if somebody came along and was willing to take no inspection, they were going to win over anybody else in that bidding war or process. But the reality is the home inspection is really your last chance and best chance to get as much information about that house. That means finding a good inspector too, but a lot of people want the cheapest inspection. They feel like if somebody just comes through and says, yeah, that plug socket's not working or that light is a little dim in the dining room, that they're getting an inspection. They need to have somebody look at the roof If there's a chimney, look at the foundation, look for termites, look for carpenter ants. I mean there's so many things that if it gets passed on to you you're really screwed as a home buyer.

Bob Thompson: 13:45

Yeah, and I think a lot of times what happens is you get in certain organizations to where they're all mixed together. So in other words, the agent you know uses the company home inspector or the company termite guy, the company this. I think as homeowners you have to ask those questions and make sure that that home inspector didn't just take a class online and a few months later is a home inspector. I want somebody, whether we like it or not. I want somebody that's got a background in construction. Give me the old, grizzled guy that has been in that industry for 30 years, right, wrong or otherwise. I want somebody that can show me some serious qualifications and experience and unfortunately you're going to pay more for that and it's worth it always.

George Siegal: 14:29

Oh, absolutely, and you know, as we talk about, in a documentary film I have coming out soon, called Built to Last, buyer Beware, we have a guy whose house was damaged by Hurricane Sandy in 2012, and it took him seven years to get back in his house and he talks about all the things that can go wrong in the process, and one of the main points he makes is it's a lot more expensive to be proactive and fix things before they're bad than to try to repair them after the problem occurs. That if you can get ahead of things as a homeowner, you're going to be much better off.

Bob Thompson: 15:04

No, I agree, that's the beauty of the home inspection, because it's basically giving you a built-in list of, most of the time, little nickel and dime things that you need to do. And the best thing you can do is start on that list right away, especially if it's stuff that you yourself can do, run to Lowe's and change out an outlet here or there, and obviously, if you can't, then you can find people to do that Because, again, it's going to be smaller items and you can just kind of work your way through the list. Not all of us are blessed to be able to turn a wrench, but we can hopefully find somebody else that can do it for us at a reasonable price.

George Siegal: 15:37

Yeah, I can hand you a wrench. I think I can do that pretty well.

Bob Thompson: 15:41

Trust me, I'm the same way I'm actually, believe it or not a former class A contractor, which means I know how to open a book, but don't ask me to fix it. I can tell you what's wrong with it, but I can't fix it and I'm not going to pretend that I can.

George Siegal: 15:53

Yeah, and I don't think anybody should mess around with electrical unless they really know what they're doing. No, no, a lot of.

Bob Thompson: 16:00

We had major problems with. Electrical Flooring was off, Windows wouldn't open, Windows wouldn't close. It was, I mean, it was by the time I moved out we still had repair work to do and we had probably spent 40 or 50 grand by that point, easily over the different over the years, being able to do different things.

George Siegal: 16:21

Now another thing I think people don't realize okay, you got in that situation where you were. If you're playing hot potato and the potato landed on you and you got all the bad stuff with this house, how much of that do you have to tell the person who buys it? I mean, if, obviously, if there's a record of people that have come out and worked on it and there's permits and all these things, how difficult is it to then sell a house like that?

Bob Thompson: 16:42

Realistically. I know in the state of Virginia you've only got to point out material defects and that does not count. Things like plumbing and electrical. Typically it's going to be structural issues and things of that nature. So the fact that somewhere along the way I had to have the electrical updated doesn't need to be mentioned. I can simply, if anything, I'm going to use it as a plus and say, hey, look, the electricity has been updated. But and simply, if anything, I'm going to use it as a plus and say, hey, look, the electricity has been updated, but nine out of 10 times. I don't have to disclose that and whether we like it or not, it is always buyer. Beware it. Just, unfortunately it is. It's always going to be that way. I think too.

George Siegal: 17:14

Yeah, which makes it even more important that a buyer be armed with as much information as possible so they make a good decision. And another thing I think buyers don't always think about if you like something but you're really not planning on being in the house very long, it's a bridge house for you. Possibly you're almost safer going with things not just what you like, but what a lot of people like. We tried flipping a house once and it didn't have a garage, and we found out afterwards you weren't even allowed to put a carport in. Well, what did that do? That eliminated anybody that had a nice car from wanting to buy that house because of hail, potential damage and being out in the elements. So you want to make more money selling the house, but the people who have the nice cars that might buy that house don't want it because it doesn't have the carport or the garage. So you really have to think ahead, don't you? In a lot of different ways.

Bob Thompson: 18:07

I think so, and I think you also have to remember is that you know a lot of agents like to say that there's always a good time to buy a house. That's not necessarily the case. Sometimes it's just not the right time. You have to be in a right emotional space for it. You have to know that. You know I'm going to stay in this house. This is a major purchase and you're only really going to make three or four of them entire your entire life. And I'll give you an example.

Bob Thompson: 18:41

Prior to buying that house, my wife and I were living in a townhouse and we had custody of our younger half brothers, and they were 14. So they were in high school. Well, realistically, we only had a couple. By the time we bought that house, the boys were only going to be in school for another year and a half.

Bob Thompson: 18:49

If we had been smart, we could have stayed in that townhouse as a rental for another year and a half and we wouldn't have needed the four bedroom, two bath, and we would have been able to think about what do we want to do? I mean, I wasn't in a position where I wanted to cut grass every weekend and deal with all of this stuff. So maybe if we'd have been smart and waited, then we could have said, okay, well, let's just go buy a townhouse or a condo where all of that maintenance is done and we don't have to deal with it. I don't have an answer for that, but as I look back on it, we should have. We should have. Just we should have waited, because then there was, we could have bought something a little bit smaller or maybe something in a nicer neighborhood and not had to worry about being in that exact school system for the kids. Our whole trajectory would have changed.

George Siegal: 19:35

Yeah, generally to the by the um, the boils that you see in a house anytime for me, like if there hasn't been enough closet space or the driveway was too steep or you couldn't do certain things when people would come look at that house when we were selling it. That was the first thing they noticed in the report when they would tell the agent as feedback Now there wasn't enough closet space or that driveway is too steep for me to get my portion, or whatever. If you can think about it as being a problem, it's not going to be a secret to most people. They're going to know about it.

Bob Thompson: 20:05

No, and like oh, here's a big one I'm dealing with a lot because I sell a lot in older neighborhoods, no primary bathroom. So it's basically you're going to. You have your, your quote unquote three bedroom or four bedroom and two full baths, but it's not attached.

Bob Thompson: 20:24

And for a lot of people that doesn't work and I don't blame them and I'm always like why are you going to spend $400,000 where you got to put a robe on, to go out to your own bathroom to get a shower and all of that? I'm sorry. There's something about being a grownup that I like to be able to, to walk right into my bathroom from my bedroom and not have to worry about if the kids are coming around or, you know, if I've got family staying over or whatever the case, that makes a big difference, and in older homes they didn't exist, so it's a problem.

George Siegal: 20:51

So what do you think it is about us people in general that makes us make such horrible decisions on a regular basis?

Bob Thompson: 20:59

I think, because the people that are helping us make those decisions and I'm going to include my own industry a lot of times don't actually know what they're talking about, got into the business for the wrong reasons and, let's be honest, we don't do enough research. As a home buyer, I mean, I literally pointed my finger in the yellow pages which tells you how long ago this was and called the first agent that I saw and talked to her. What I should have done was reached out to my friends and family and interviewed several agents and folks that get up. That's why, for me, I value personal referral over anything. By all means, those are the people that I want to call me because I have a track record. That's what I should have done. I literally, just on a whim, was like hey, I'm going to call this person.

Bob Thompson: 21:47

The other thing is we only looked at one other house because we needed four bedroom, two bath. I was impatient and I walked in the house, looked around and said, yeah, it'll do. And that was the extent of the conversation, and that agent probably should have smacked me upside the head and said dude, what are you doing? You know, let's not think about the short-term income. Think about the fact that if she had done her job properly, then she would have had a fan and would have had a client for life. Now, granted, I eventually got my own license and moved on, but if I hadn't I would. She would have been my guy till doomsday, and I think a lot of agents drop the ball on that. They do the short-term thinking and it doesn't work.

George Siegal: 22:28

I wonder how many people said yellow pages.

Bob Thompson: 22:32

Yeah, I know Almost 52. I get it, trust me.

George Siegal: 22:35

Yeah, I mean, that's not really a great way to find. If you think about it, the best way is to know. A lot of times it's annoying when you get all those flyers from realtors in your neighborhood, but at least you know who's around there selling houses and it's a good place to start just to ask questions. But even on them, I would you know. I did that one time where we hired what we call the big heavyweight realtor and our house wasn't significant enough to garner enough of her attention. So sometimes that person isn't the right person either. You really have to see who they're selling houses for and then ask those people how happy they are.

Bob Thompson: 23:12

Yeah, and you've got to interview and you've got to be willing to. Again, they should be willing to give you a list of people that they've worked with To this day. If I walk into a listing appointment and they don't know who I am, then I'm going to hand them my phone and go okay, call, Pick anybody you want, call them at random and we're going to tell you what's up. And you, with the big power teams, you do have to be careful because a lot of times you're not actually going to get the guy that runs the team. I know when I was on a power team years ago, you weren't going to get him to leave his office. It wasn't going to happen. He was going to send me or one of the other lackeys to go actually do the listing appointment and talk about all the great things we can do.

Bob Thompson: 23:48

You have to interview and you have to make sure that you're comfortable with that person. It's not about the buzz or the marketing or all the rest of it. It's about the human being sitting across from you. Quite honestly, if you feel icky, walk away. There's probably a reason you feel that way.

George Siegal: 24:01

Yeah, and definitely ask and say who's going to be taking care of me, who's the person that will be working on my house? I know it's like that with those billboard lawyers, the accident lawyers, the ones that are on TV. That's not usually the one you're going to get, unless you're in a major accident and it's a high profile case.

Bob Thompson: 24:18

No, you're going to get the other lawyers and everything else. And we, I think we have a tendency we want to be nice, so we don't ask the hard questions. And I think you absolutely have to ask the hard questions and if your agent can't answer them, then kindly escort them to the door and find somebody else. And to me, I personally I have no problems with that Ask me the hard questions. I mean, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that, it's important.

George Siegal: 24:44

Yeah, I want you to see how big a pain in the ass I'm going to be before we start working together.

Bob Thompson: 24:48

And that works both ways, because sometimes, as an agent, you don't want to work with certain people because, even if they're not necessarily a pain, maybe they're just not everybody's a fit. It's like anything else in this world. If you're, if they're going to constantly second guess what you're trying to do, or they got their own drama in their own life, it may be like you know what, mr Seller, why don't you go ahead and hire somebody else? Because this isn't going to work, and there's nothing wrong with that. Sometimes people just don't work.

George Siegal: 25:16

Absolutely. That's great advice. Now, in addition to being a real estate agent, you're also a motivational speaker. Yes, sir, what's the speech about?

Bob Thompson: 25:25

Well, quite honestly, that started after the two heart attacks and the bypass in 2018. As I was moving my way back up into real estate, I kind of wanted to give back to the real estate world and mentor and teach some younger agents on how to do things as far as I'm concerned, the right way and it kind of snowballed from there. Basically, what I talk about a lot of is persistent progress and self-checks, and, with the young people, I talk about working in the dark because there's so much negativity. You don't have to tell everybody your business. Just keep it to yourself, do what you're trying to do and then, when it's ready to come out full bore, come out with it.

Bob Thompson: 26:05

I can remember even working as a chemist. When I went full time from chemist to real estate in 2007, everybody told me I was insane. I had so many people that are like well, you've got a steady job, you make good money. This is a terrible idea. You're never going to make any money in real estate. Why are you doing this? There's a recession, I mean, there's so much negativity. Hell.

Bob Thompson: 26:25

When I left the grocery business to go work in the chemistry industry, I literally had people doing the same thing in 99. They were just like, well, we were going to make you a grocery manager. And I'm like, ooh, you know what would he do? You know you're never going to get any better than working produce at the Harris Teeter. People are always trying to tear you down and tell you that you're not going to do any better. So for me, I found the best way to combat that is I don't tell anybody squat other than my little circle, and I'm going to make my little moves and then, when I'm ready to bust out, I'm going to bust out because I just I don't want to hear the negativity, because I'm smart enough to know that it will affect me, and the best way to keep it away is to just not tell anybody.

George Siegal: 27:09

Yeah, no, that's. That sounds like great advice. Now, how do you feel about the the commission rules changing for realtors?

Bob Thompson: 27:16

It means absolutely nothing. All of that means is the paperwork's a little different, but it's always the same, whether anybody likes it or not. The whole point of the buyer's agents when they came in in the 1990s was to incentivize the buyer's agents to bring me the deal. So we've always quote, unquote, call it what you want. You can't say split the commission, but the fact of the matter is if I'm getting a 5% commission, I'm going to give half of that to the buyer's agent. That's not really changing. It's not affecting price points in any way, shape or form. It's simply moving the number to the other side of the paragraph. That's all it's doing. I know that it makes for great clickbait. I know I have already responded to this a few times on several organizations and news media and again, it means absolutely nothing.

Bob Thompson: 28:08

At the end of the day, 99 out of 100 times I think it's a great idea to have a real estate agent, one that you can trust and rely on, the exception to that rule being sometimes it is better to do it yourself. If you're in a situation where it's an investment property or grandma and grandpa die and you don't want to clean the house out, sometimes the best deal isn't the highest price deal. It all comes down to emotional capital and what your needs are, and I think agents get mad about that and my attitude is always the same. You know what? I can go to State Farm to get my insurance, or I can call the general. I'm not going to get that level of service, but it's going to be cheaper and sometimes that's all you need and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. There are many ways to do that and I've never begrudged anybody that doesn't necessarily get a real estate agent. We all have to do what's best for us.

George Siegal: 29:01

What is my Wu rant? Real estate rant.

Bob Thompson: 29:06

That is my Wu Tang real estate rant I do on every Friday, which is basically my minute and a half to two minutes complaints and or bitches about other real estate agents and some of the stupidity and stuff that goes on in the market.

Bob Thompson: 29:22

And it could be either, you know, if your agent's telling you this, they're wrong, this is what you need to do, or it could be about I had a recent one, you know, dealing with oil tanks where we had a oil tank that was not properly taken care of and they just, you know, on the home inspection, you know, the home inspector discovered that the oil tank wasn't secure, there was a bunch of oil that had ran out and, of course, that had contaminated the ground and had to be taken care of. So it's a lot of stuff like that. It's just basically my again. It's just Bob being Bob and ranting and raving, which I've been known to do over the years. I get myself in trouble all the time with the Facebook real estate groups and stuff because unfortunately I don't. You know I'm not going to do the tried and true and I'm going to do what I'm going to do, whether you like it or you don't.

George Siegal: 30:08

Good for you. So what would be your final piece of advice for anybody that's going out there thinking about buying a house? What's the main thought process they should have with this?

Bob Thompson: 30:18

Get referrals, get referrals, get referrals and ask a thousand questions and don't be afraid to. This is one of whether we like it or not. You're only going to do this three or four times in your lifetime. So make sure it is the right move and make sure that you are comfortable with your agent and you trust that they know what they're talking about. And there are multiple ways to check that. How many deals have they done? Are they being honest with you? Let's be honest If they're coming across like a salesman, you need to fire them immediately.

Bob Thompson: 30:46

If they have no interest in a long-term relationship with you, you should go into every I always go in with. I want to be that person's guy for my life. I want them. Hey, you need a real estate guy Call Bob. That's the type of attitude they should always have, and you should be able to go through their list of buyers and sellers and, at random, call that individual and say, hey, you worked with Bob three years ago. He did this and this. What do you think? And that'll tell you everything you need to know, whether we like it or not. That is the best advice I can possibly give. Word of mouth is everything.

George Siegal: 31:22

Well listen, bob. Your contact information links will all be in the show notes. Thanks for coming on and sharing your story today. I really appreciate it.

Bob Thompson: 31:29

Not a problem, If anybody needs anything. I'm old so I still answer the phone. Send me an email, send me a text. I'll answer the phone, Even if it's just to give a minute and a half worth of real estate advice or whatever. I still have friends of mine that will send their cousins, uncles, brother, to me in another state just to ask a quick question or even review the contract. Obviously, I can't review a California contract and give you every detail, but I can still read it enough to know. Okay, well, that's a little funky, and this is why. So, by all means, they should always be able to ask these questions.

George Siegal: 32:01

All right, thanks, bob.

Bob Thompson: 32:03

Thanks.

George Siegal: 32:04

I know a lot of you have stories that have happened to you and I'd love for you to share them here. There's a contact form in the show notes. Send it my way and I'll have you on an upcoming episode. Thanks for taking the time to listen today. I'll see you next time.