The Hidden Cost of Waiting in Real Estate

Ashley Fredrick (00:17)
Alright, welcome everyone to the leading that lane podcast. Thank you for joining us today. A topic we're to talk about is the cost the hidden cost of waiting and real estate. There's numerous ways to look at that whether it's rates or offers. I don't think people think about what waiting can actually cost them in the long run. So

Steven L Burch (00:51)
I mean, I think that like why wait in any of this? Can you not hear? We'll wait. We'll wait.

There, there you go.

So do the question again.

Ashley Fredrick (01:10)
Go for it.

What do you think are some hidden costs of waiting in real estate?

Steven L Burch (01:19)
I think that there are so many different costs, like you can't even count them all, right? Like it could have cost you not just the house that you wanna move into, it could cost you the opportunity of meeting the neighbor that would lead to the next opportunity. I think that it's just, if you hurry up and wait, like you're always going to be waiting. And I think you're always going to be missing out on.

so many different aspects and so many different things. Like I think it's in, like there's no monetary that you can truly stack up to it. ⁓ You know, like if you wait, like, I mean, if you really want to put a number to it, if you wait and, you know, until there's an offer on it, cool, now you're negotiating, get somebody else and there's the hard line that of the line item of money that you're missing out on. Now you have to maybe pay more or waive your inspections and.

Maybe you get the house, but then you wave your inspections and now you have a flooded basement or whatever the case may be. You don't know what it's going to evolve into. If we had a crystal ball, trust me, we would not be in this industry. We'd be in something different. So I think it has a big ass price tag.

Ashley Fredrick (02:34)
I that realtors could also do a better job of educating their ⁓ clients. So kind of like what you mentioned, like waiting to put an offer in. I recently had someone that said that they would just wait until another offer came in and then they would wait. And I had said, well, if that's what you want to do, great, but I would encourage you to think about that differently and that...

If you're the only offer right now, you might be able to get a little bit more of a deal. If you wait until another offer comes in, yes, you might pay more. You might have to have remove inspections and right there like, I never thought about it that way. So that is my role as their agent is to point out things that they don't know because they don't do this every single day.

Steven L Burch (03:11)
Great.

Yeah,

I mean, shift the perspective, right? Like because I think that I do understand, like you think waiting is going to help wait and see what's going to actually, you know, pan out. But, you know, being able to shift the perspective and how much are you really willing to miss out? Or is that something is this truly than the house that's for you if you're wanting to wait and see if there's going to be a price drop? What happens if you are waiting to see if there's a price drop and then the next buyer comes in and offers

$75,000 under and the seller says, yep, I'm gonna go for it. Are you gonna be no but hurt that you missed out on that opportunity because you didn't take the chance to be able to do the ask? And I think it goes back to kind of like what we've talked about before. People are afraid of rejection. And I think that because if they wait and see, maybe it's gonna be a little bit easier for them to be able to process and take the rejection versus just going straight out there and going for the ask.

Ashley Fredrick (04:17)
think the other thing that I've seen a lot of lately is like our markets weird. are some houses that are getting multiple offers and selling quickly. There are some that are sitting. It's just seems to be a mix of everything, but I always get frustrated when another agent will cancel a showing or say, ⁓ don't want to get in a bidding war. And I'm always slightly confused by that because like,

What if said offer that came in was $20,000 under asking and your buyer was going to offer $5,000 like under asking like that's not a bidding war. mean, your buyer could have still got a great opportunity on the house. I think that there's like a mindset shift of not just always assuming it's going to be a bidding war or assuming that, you know, your buyer, I mean, what if the closing date was more important to them than, than money and

Steven L Burch (04:55)
huh.

Ashley Fredrick (05:12)
your closing date worked better for them or you had stronger financing. I think there's just so many things to just, I mean, it happens all the time. They're like, oh, no, they're not interested in bidding war. Like, oh, an offer came in. Yeah, they'd

offer, but they're not interested in a bidding war. I just, whenever my buyers say that to me, I guess I normally say like, but we don't know what the other offer is. So why don't you just put your best foot forward? And if it works, it works. And if not, it wasn't meant to be.

Steven L Burch (05:38)
You know, society here in America, we're one of the few places that are used to negotiating. I mean, really think about that. when you go to, I don't know, when you go to Mexico or wherever, right? they're selling and they're

going back and forth, they're negotiating and they are so used to it and accustomed to it and their culture and society. It's where in our world, it's a sticker price, right? Like you think about it, go anywhere that you do, anybody that's selling anything, there's a sticker price and there's not a negotiation back and forth. It's a, let me buy it. And then that's it of the exchange. So I think that we really miss out on a lot of that. And I mean, it's always constantly thinking the negative, I think, in these things.

of, well, this is going to happen or they're not going to accept this. We don't know. We have no freaking clue. Why are we thinking for the negative? What if it actually worked out? What if this is actually going to be a positive for you? So I think it's just kind of interesting when you, you know, step back just a little bit and look at it of how we all are as a society and negotiating with anything like I have no problem going in for that. But I think that's because we're in this industry, but in this industry,

on my life and in sales on my life, so I have no problem asking.

Ashley Fredrick (07:03)
Yeah, I think, you know, the mindset just comes across in so many different ways. And I do think that it's really easy to get stuck in the negative mindset with the world. I mean, we talk about it all the time, but you know, you have to remember that like someone hired you to represent them in a transaction and this sun is going to be right in my face. And if you're letting your own mindset

get in the way of like truly helping a client, like then you're not actually serving them. You're actually a barrier to their entry of housing.

Steven L Burch (07:37)
Right. So and then like if you're just the order taker, right? Like what if somebody were to come to you and say like, oh, I'm just going to wait. And then you as the agent were like, cool, just let me know. Like what did that cost you as the agent? Right. What is that?

Ashley Fredrick (07:55)
I just had a buyer that said that they wanted to move by December, right? So I was like, I mean, we got plenty of time, but I don't know what houses will come up between now and December. So one came out that met what they were looking for. I was like, I know you said you hadn't till December, but this house meets what you're looking for. And then they hummed on it and then it was under contract and they didn't even get a chance to look at it. And then they wrote back and they're like, okay, so we didn't realize.

quickly the market moves and so now like they're very much on board. I think sometimes even for buyers like they have to feel that loss or feel that frustration sometimes before they'll choose to make that move.

Steven L Burch (08:33)
Okay.

Right. Like so imagine if you would have held that back and you're like, they told me December and I'm not going to bother them. I'm you know, that's not what they said or whatever the case may be. But now what if this happened? This exact scenario happened in November and they missed out on the house that they absolutely freaking love and they did not have any other opportunity. Now they're stuck in between a rock and a hard place. Like how are you going to fill that should have what it could at that point?

Ashley Fredrick (09:08)
I feel the story about how a client called and there was a house that they were interested in, but it was like maybe October and they didn't want to move until March, but it was like the only house they liked. then they're like, we'll just look at it when we come back from Snowbirds. And I was like, let's just look at it now. Like it doesn't hurt anything. And lo and behold, they wrote on it and that seller was fine waiting until March. like, right. She messaged me and was like, this is the best thing that ever happened. And same thing. Like I tell people, like I'm not.

I don't want to be pushy in sales, which I'll always tell people that, but sometimes I'll lead you to where you're trying to get what you're in your own way. I was thinking about that this morning. There's so many people that are literally in their own way currently, and we should try to help guide them past being in their own way.

Steven L Burch (09:40)
Right.

⁓ My brain went a totally different direction with that one, no, just, mean, it's like you can lead a horse to water, right? But some people just, they wanna wait or they don't see it or their mindset or whatever the case may be, all of the above. ⁓ And I think that maybe, I mean, for me, that's wildly frustrating because I just wanna kind of shake somebody and like.

Ashley Fredrick (10:01)
Go for it.

Steven L Burch (10:26)
Why aren't you just seeing what's in front of you right now? Why? Why? Wait, why are you trying to do this and make it more difficult and you don't see the easy path here?

Ashley Fredrick (10:37)
you think that agents can help buyers or sellers? mean, because sellers also ⁓ get in their own way about things. Like, how do think agents can help clients move through like that fear or like the fear of the unknown?

Steven L Burch (10:53)
Well, I think you have to find a relatable scenario so that they can see their real life that they've already had all of these things and just different perspectives or changes or stages in life. like for me, if my client had kids, like, okay, cool. If you waited for the most perfect opportunity to have a child.

How long would you be waiting? Would you still have your children now? Like what would happen with that? And then just really like push the bruise of the mind shift of like, there's never a perfect time. I don't have kids, but I hear it all the time. There's never a perfect time to say, yep, we're ready to have kids. It happens. And you have to go with the flow of life. So I think it's just finding that common ground for them to be able to like remove it off of the spotlight of real estate and put it onto a

real personal matter for them to be able to relate to that they've already went through.

Ashley Fredrick (11:57)
Yeah, I think that that's like one thing about, you know, being in real estate for a while. And the more transactions that you do is you get more and more experiences, like real life experiences. So I think it's easier to just always like refer back to like, well, this one time like this happened, you know, like I have a seller that doesn't think that they can empty out their house in 60 days and like, there's not a lot in their house. Um, you know, and I was like, I've emptied a 4,000 square foot house in 24 hours, like

We can do it in 60 days. Like we can hire someone to box it. We can hire someone to move it. Like Habitat will come and get all of the extra things, you know? And so I think that having the confidence though and also telling them those things is beneficial versus just kind of ho-humming along with them.

Steven L Burch (12:29)
Okay.

Yeah, so I agree with you as far as like I'm not a high pressure salesperson whatsoever. And so to me, stories sell like that's the selling point. That is how to get people to buy. That's how you sell real estate. The house is going to sell itself in my opinion, right? They're there for me for the to be able to get them through the transaction and make it as smooth as possible. But if I'm trying to sell them, what I'm really doing is telling them the stories.

the stories that I have experienced, the stories that I've heard through the office or whatever else to be able to show them whatever the outcome is that we're trying to go after. So I think once they can have that shift of like, I don't need to go over here and say, here's the kitchen. Like they can see that, but they need to hear the real life, the good, the bad, the ugly of what could happen in whatever situation that they're currently in.

Ashley Fredrick (13:38)
I just being honest with people, but also like literally just communicating. Like I have, uh, like a husband and wife that like don't appear to be on the same page. And it is, I mean, it's literally just communicating. And sometimes I feel like we have to be the like mediator of sorts, like, but right. that's on us. Yeah, that's on us to like ask those right questions when they're together. You know, and I had a couple of that, it was like debating between two houses.

Steven L Burch (13:57)
A translator.

Ashley Fredrick (14:07)
and I was literally like, you guys need to make a list of pros and cons for each house. And then they're like, yeah, but our pros and cons are gonna be different. And I was like, that's great. I don't care. But I was like, both make your own pros and cons list and then bring them together and see like, do you guys have more pros that match on one house, more cons that match on another house? And then it opens up to like what house really does fit your needs.

Steven L Burch (14:30)
Right. And I think those little activities, if you will, it again, it takes it off of the pressure, the spotlight off of like the transaction or like the hurry up, but brings it back to them on a personal level. You know, I do a grade scale when I'm showing houses to buyers.

So if this were, if you were in school, you have A, B, C, right? D, F, what would you grade it? And then I start ranking them as well. Like you have to be able to help them ⁓ process through how to make that decision. You're not making the decision for them, but you're using different tactics to be able to help them through, to be able to dissect, because I don't think a lot of people have the.

⁓ deep dive critical thinking or big picture thinking of how to connect the dots of A to B and we're over here already connecting how many other freaking alphabets to together across the board. So my goodness.

Ashley Fredrick (15:28)
about stupid? Well, I think it's because,

like they do it once every seven to ten years. We do it 15 times a day. So like it's easier for us to move through those. But if we can just help plant some of those seeds to help them get from A to B versus just leaving people in a, you know, in a loss. And then I think that sometimes like

Steven L Burch (15:35)
Right. Right.

Ashley Fredrick (15:52)
know, buyers or sellers will get really frustrated because they don't know where to turn next and then they don't know what conversations to have. So I think it's on us to help lead them.

Steven L Burch (16:00)
Yeah, absolutely. because they're trying to go from A to Z and walk into their house that they just purchased. They don't know all the little steps in between to be able to really slow themselves down. So that's where the professionals come into play and making sure that you can walk them through properly.

Ashley Fredrick (16:20)
Yeah, I think, you know, there is a hidden cost to waiting. and I think that it's on us as professionals to help people walk through that, to help them problem solve, explain true options, even when I don't think that necessarily want to hear it. And I'll tell them that like, you might not want to hear this, but I'm just going to tell you, and it's for you to digest how you want, but I'd feel guilty if I didn't say something X, Y, Z. So again, I think it's just being, you know, open communication and

Steven L Burch (16:43)
Right.

Ashley Fredrick (16:49)
really knowing that at the end of day you are working for them and they want to hear from you because that's why they hired you, that's why they're working for you.

Steven L Burch (16:57)
So if you're listening, the one thing that you're like, I'm to wait on that. Go fucking do it. Get it done. Move it out of the way. The one thing. OK, good. Send the picture. Love it. Well, thanks for tuning in today, guys. As always, we appreciate you and make sure you catch the next one.

Ashley Fredrick (17:06)
I guess I'm going go buy a car.