Listen Up Home Buyers Advice & Tips from True Buyer Agents

As an experiment, I put the URL to a website article into Notebook LM from Google. The article, What Every Buyer Should Know About Condo Docs, was loaded in Notebook. I chose, "Audio Preview"The results are this 16:25 audio podcast. The voices you hear are AI generated. The original content was my article. However the conversation is the AI version of the content.  Listen Up, Home Buyers! The podcast offering advice and tips from true buyer agents. Host and Producer, Victoria Ray Henderson is the owner and broker of HomeBuyer Brokerage in the Washington D.C. area. Victoria is and a member of the National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents. 

Mike Crowley is the owner and broker of Spokane Home Buyers in Washington state. Mike is a former president of the National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents, naeba.org, and current board member. With 30 years experience as an exclusive buyer broker, Mike offers advice on new rules in real estate regarding buyer broker agreements, dual agency and open houses. Victoria Ray Henderson is the owner and broker of HomeBuyer Brokerage serving Maryland, Washington D.C. and Virginia home buyers.  Listen Up, Home Buyers! The podcast offering advice and tips from true buyer agents. Host and Producer, Victoria Ray Henderson is the owner and broker of HomeBuyer Brokerage in the Washington D.C. area. Victoria is and a member of the National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents. 

Andi DeFelice,  owner and broker of Exclusive Buyer's Realty in Savannah Georgia talks with host Victoria Ray Henderson, owner and broker of HomeBuyer Brokerage in Washington D.C., Maryland & Virginia about the new rules in real estate coming August 17th 2024.What are the big changes in real estate coming August 17, 2024Who pays the buyer agent in a real estate transactionMisinformation has confused home buyers and home sellersInterview real estate agents, ask how they will communicate with youWhat is dual agencyShould I go to open housesWhat is an exclusive buyer agent or exclusive buyer broker Listen Up, Home Buyers! The podcast offering advice and tips from true buyer agents. Host and Producer, Victoria Ray Henderson is the owner and broker of HomeBuyer Brokerage in the Washington D.C. area. Victoria is and a member of the National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents. 

Meet Steve Kodad is a certified feng shui professional, owner of the Feng Shui Cure, and co-owner of the Intrinsic School of Feng Shui. Steve shares advice on using feng shui to improve the quality of your home.  Listen Up, Home Buyers! The podcast offering advice and tips from true buyer agents. Host and Producer, Victoria Ray Henderson is the owner and broker of HomeBuyer Brokerage in the Washington D.C. area. Victoria is and a member of the National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents. 

Peggy Bailey is the Vice President of Housing and Income Security, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.  Her work protects and expands access to affordable housing, improves state’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), focuses on child support programs and expands employment opportunities to housing and cash assistance recipients. Before joining the Center, Peggy served in the Biden/Harris Administration as the Senior Advisor on Rental Assistance to HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge.She recently testified before the Senate Banking Committee on housing.1:45 People simply don't have the money to afford housingToo many families are paying more than 40 - 60 percent of their income on housingLandlords have to charge a certain amount of money to pay the mortgage and maintain the buildingMinimum rent is out of reach for too many peopleMultifaceted problem, where do you start?Multi family housing is being developed but most of it is being priced in the upper end of affordability3:58 Government subsidy to afford high rental cost4:10 there are pockets of innovation, European countries are taking a more social approach to housing4:55 People need flexibility regarding where they can live5:19 Child care is a major factor with housing costs6:00 Families don't have enough money to afford their basic needs6:36 Housing justice, everyone has a right to housing7:04 Housing is a basic need like food and clothing7:48 Rent mitigation and rent cost containment8:12 Leveling the playing field and racial injustice with housing8:25 Racism and discrimination underlines most if not all of the things we've used in the past as solutions8:40 Reprogram and redesign new plans to correct past racism and discrimination9:00 Cash programs improves housing, nutrition and more9:16 Denver Colorado has a pilot project that is doing it right10:06 A recent housing initiative will increase affordable housing supply, make it easier to build affordable housing and increase the number of units available10:38 Grant programs for builders to offset the cost of creating housing11:01 A Capital stack12:40 rental assistance programs for people who need help now50th Anniversary of the housing choice voucher program 2024 13:20 Landlord has the control now but that may change and offer the tenant the voucher and option to choose the housing14:00 Many separate voucher programs available but these can leave some people out14:20 Not reinforcing the deserving status but delivering housing assistance to those who need it14:45 What could happen with the housing voucher? 15:30 Reducing discrimination and empowering the individual        Listen Up, Home Buyers! The podcast offering advice and tips from true buyer agents. Host and Producer, Victoria Ray Henderson is the owner and broker of HomeBuyer Brokerage in the Washington D.C. area. Victoria is and a member of the National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents. 

Listen Up Home Buyers—Jeff Jackson With FIMAVictoria: Hi, I'm Victoria Ray Henderson, the host of the NAEBA podcast, Listen Up Homebuyers. So happy to have back for a second round of conversations, Jeff Jackson, the Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Federal Insurance Directorate. He leads flood insurance operations for the National Flood Insurance Program at FEMA. And Jeff, I want to thank you so much for being a guest again on Listen Up Homebuyers.Jeff: Thanks. It's great to be back.Victoria: So glad to have you. I'd like to start with a very general question. What should every homebuyer know about flood insurance?Jeff: The most important thing to know is then that in all but the rarest of cases, flood risk is not insured through your homeowner's insurance policy. If you want to have coverage for water that comes from the outside and comes inside your house, so not sink backups, not toilet backups. Those kinds of things, but water coming in from the outside, it requires a separate flood insurance policy. You can either buy that from the National Flood Insurance Program, which is through FIMA, or there often are a number of private flood insurance policies that you can buy as well.Victoria: So if somebody lives in an area that isn't by the coast, isn't necessarily by a creek or a river, what do they need to know about flood insurance?Jeff: Well, it floods everywhere. There have been in the last little bit under 25 years, 99% of the counties in America have flooded. So, it's happening somewhere in your county. And what I would say is it's not always readily apparent just by looking around and seeing the distance to the nearest water source, although that's an extremely important factor. Changes in our built environment, the more we see paving, the more we see development of what was traditionally green space can raise our flood risk as well. And so there can be an illusion that you don't have flood risk when in actuality, you're at least perhaps moderately risky. And that certainly is an area when you get there, you would at least want to strongly only consider buying a flood insurance policy.Victoria: Okay. So as you know, I only work for people buying homes as an exclusive buyer broker. So the first thing that we typically do when they're going to be buying a home is see how well they're qualified to obtain a mortgage. At what point should a home buyer be looking at the risk that could be potentially there in a house of interest?Jeff: I would say it's when you get that listing from your broker and you see a list of houses, it's good to go look them up on the FIMA maps to see if it's a place where you would have to buy flood insurance. And we certainly went over this the last time I was here. But for the folks who are checking in for the first time, if you are in a high-risk area, what's called a special flood hazard area, and you have a federally backed mortgage, which is most mortgages, then you're required to buy. For everyone else, it's an option to buy, and for those where it's required, certainly as you go through the lending process, that will be made clear to you.But really, getting back to the heart of your question, it's when you walk through the door of the house for the first time. It's everything from knowing if it's in a high-risk area as you go and choose to look at the listing, as well as when you walk through the property, look around and look for what are there any signs of water in this house? Are there sump pumps? Has clearly work been done because there's a drainage issue in a basement? Many places have that. So you don't have to be scared away that it's a matter of going in and learning as much as you can about the property so that you make a decision about whether or not to purchase it, and then if you do purchase it; First, do you have to buy, have flood insurance? And then second, should you choose to buy flood insurance?Victoria: Right, I always tell people that I'm working with that when we go into a house, the first thing I'm going to tell you is everything that's wrong with it. And I go straight to the basement because we both live in the greater Washington, D.C. area, and we have a lot of wet basements, a lot of issues, along the Potomac River. Just last week, I'm working with clients in Old Town, Alexandria, and they were interested in a condominium, and I checked the flood maps, and it's in an A.E. flood map. Walk me through what your advice would be for a homebuyer in that situation if they really wanted to put an offer in on a place like that.Jeff: The first thing I would do is reach out to your insurance agent and get a quote, not just for homeowners insurance, but also for flood insurance. If you're in that A.E. zone, that's one of the zones that is required to purchase if you have a federally backed mortgage. So I would go get a flood quote and factor that in, the cost of that in, when you're determining the affordability of the house, and as you're comparing it to other properties, perhaps where you might not have to buy a flood insurance policy and make that part of your buying decision, the more you can learn about a property, including from the cost perspective. But your number one trigger should be, have your insurance agent on speed dial. So, when you see that house, you know that Saturday is coming, you're getting excited about going and looking at all these properties, you know for that one, you would have to factor in cost.Victoria: When people are looking at properties and it's zoned X, but they aren't that far from a zone A.E., you had mentioned that typical flood insurance isn't covered in most homeowners insurance. Is that correct?Jeff: That's right.Victoria: Yeah. So, if you are anywhere near an A.E., would your advice be to go ahead and look into flood insurance?Jeff: I would go ahead and do it for a couple of reasons. The FIMA flood maps are really a regulatory product designed to decide when we as a country and particularly looking out for the mortgage holders' interest, when we're going to say, hey, we need you to go ahead and purchase this insurance because your high risk. If you're just outside of the high-risk area, you're not no risk, and that's the biggest myth that we have to bust here as we teach folks about flood risk in America. You're probably at medium risk. Medium to medium high is a good way of characterizing it.What we know over time is it only takes about an inch of water that can quickly get you up to around a $25,000 cost repairing your home. So, in that circumstance, I certainly would buy a policy. It really gives you peace of mind. It is an expense and I know with housing being so expensive and insurance costs are rising, it's not exciting to add an additional expense into the household budget to be sure. But we talk to people every year who do have the coverage and who do experience a loss. And they look at, let's say, a $50,000 or $60,000 flood loss, which is pretty common.Victoria: Okay.Jeff: Not average, but common, and so if you don't have the coverage, you're looking at covering that, putting things on a credit card, taking it out of your home equity. If you just bought the property, depending upon the size of your down payment, you may not have a lot of equity, and it really can set you back. People get set back decades and don't financially or don't financially recover at all. So particularly for the people in that situation that you described, it would be a great investment. Your home is your biggest investment for most of us, and this certainly will help you protect that investment.Victoria: Is it possible to give kind of an average, and we're not going to hold you to this, but an average cost for flood insurance? So people have some idea of what they'd be looking at.Jeff: Our average cost is a little bit over $800 right now.Victoria: Okay.Jeff: But it can range and particularly for those who are just outside of a high-risk area, it's going to be a little bit more than that probably. But the average cost right now is just a little bit over $800. The National Flood Insurance Program was created because we have an insurability problem in America, as well as an affordability problem. We haven't unfortunately solved the affordability problem in all these years, but the NFIP is here and we'll sell a policy to anyone in any of the 22,600 participating communities. So that availability problem that we see with, you know, we see insurers pulling out of places like California. We see people dropping people in Florida, insurers dropping people in Florida.With the NFIP that we're going to be there and we're going to continue to sell you the insurance. It is going to be at a risk-based price. That's the affordability piece of things, and it's one of the reasons why certainly for those who can afford to do so, we encourage you to buy, and for those that can't afford it, we continue to advocate to Congress to provide some type of assistance, and we're hopeful that one day that'll be in place as well.Victoria: On this podcast, we're going to include some links so that people can learn more, from the FIMA maps and regarding the flood insurance that you're talking about. Is there anything else that you would like consumers to know and specifically, again, people who are buying homes, anything that you could share with your expertise?Jeff: One is that the FIMA flood map is a snapshot in time. It may be some vintage and certainly has to be reevaluated to make sure it continues to represent the flood picture every five years, but a lot can happen in five years. Maps get updated on a priority order. And so, it's not uncommon to see a 10-year-old map that probably is pretty close to what the risk is. But if you're expecting fine line gradations and risk, that's not really what it's designed to do. It's designed to say it's tremendously helpful for the folks in your community who manage the floodplain, particularly at the county level. It's an important technical product for them. It's important for realtors and it certainly important to help you learn if you have to buy.What it's not great at is a nuanced view of risk, and so I caution against over-reliance on the flood maps, and I think the way you look at it is the right way to think about it, which is not just, am I in or am I out of the high risk zone? But how close am I to water sources? And then give some thought and have some conversation around what have been the changes to the built environment? Say, every map will have a date on it. What's the environment? What's happened since that map was put into place? That certainly is one thing.The second thing I would say is for many years, there's been a school of thought, which is that if you don't have to buy the insurance, you don't need it, you don't need to talk about it. I caution against anybody, gives you a very dismissive, oh, you don't need that, and so we don't need to bother to talk about it. I think that's a thinking that's a little bit behind the times and is certainly not where I would want to be as a consumer in terms of getting service from whoever would be giving me that advice. So I would counsel against you don't need it. I think there are a number of great agents. There are a number of great insurance agents who will help talk you through a nuanced conversation. I think somebody who's willing to get in a conversation with you is where I would want to be as a buyer.Victoria: Yeah, I think exclusive buyer brokers like myself, and we're all over the country, one of the first things we want to do is educate and inform, which is why I have you on this podcast, because people need to know what the risks are, and then they can make a decision based on that. I live in the Washington area, and every summer, I end up flocking to the beach, just like everybody does. Sometimes I drive along that strip, that little narrow strip of Ocean City and Lewis, Delaware, and then Dewey and Rehoboth and just think, this is a pretty risky area.Jeff: Yeah, it certainly is, there's been so much evolution in the science of catastrophe modeling and learning all the flooding events that potentially could happen. The more I talk to those experts, the more that I learn is that the amount of time we're in a home is infinitesimally small. It's just minute, and you'll hear owners of homes say, I've been here for 10 years, I've been here for 15 years, and it's never flooded. So, it's probably not likely to flood. And while previous flooding experience is important, it's just such a small amount of time. I mean, the way the water patterns work, 100 years is just beginning to get to the point where you really get a keen sense of how water is moving around and what the risk is in a particular area.And then that's on top of the fact that we change things so much. I mean, we're fortunate to live in these areas where things are getting torn down and things are getting rebuilt and we need additional parking. And so, there's got to be an extra lot. And so, there's all these things that sort of hopefully will move us away from maybe the people selling us the property had it for 15 years and it never flooded there. I wouldn't let that be the end of my inquiry.Victoria: No, definitely not. I mean, it's the biggest financial commitment you're going to make in your life until you, I guess, do it again. But you don't want to make a mistake like this.Jeff: We have a great website called FloodSmart.gov. It has all kinds of information about flood insurance policies, and that's important, but also just about flood risk in America. So, it's a great resource to go out and learn a little bit. Encourage your listeners to go check that out and we've got some videos on that as well. So, go check that out.Victoria: Great. Jeff Jackson is the Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Federal Insurance Directorate. He leads flood insurance operations for the National Flood Insurance Program at FIMA. Jeff, it is such a pleasure to talk to you again about flood insurance here on Listen Up Homebuyers.Jeff: It was great to be with you. Thanks.FEMA flood insurance Listen Up, Home Buyers! The podcast offering advice and tips from true buyer agents. Host and Producer, Victoria Ray Henderson is the owner and broker of HomeBuyer Brokerage in the Washington D.C. area. Victoria is and a member of the National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents. 

Steve Brobeck served as the executive director of the Consumer Federation of America from 1980 to mid 2018. Steve now holds the position of senior fellow where he has researched real estate issues since the 1990s.Victoria Ray Henderson is the owner and broker of HomeBuyer Brokerage in the Washington D.C. area. Victoria is the producer and host of the podcast, Listen Up Home Buyers! with the National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents Victoria: Hello and welcome to the podcast, Listen Up Home Buyers. I'm Victoria Ray Henderson, and today's guest is Steve Brobeck. Mr. Brobeck served as the Executive Director of the Consumer Federation of America from 1980 to mid-2018, and he now holds the position of Senior Fellow, where he has researched real estate issues since the 1990s. Steve, welcome to Listen Up Home Buyers.Steve:  It's great to join you, Vic.Victoria:  Yeah, thank you. So we have so many things that we could talk about and that we have talked…But the one thing I'd love to talk about today is the Real Estate Agent Commissions, and specifically that recent verdict by the Federal Jury in Missouri, which ruled that the National Association of Realtors and several brokerages had conspired to fix prices by setting a standard where seller pays the listing agent a commission. And that is split with the buyer's agent. And that decision found the defendants liable for $1.8 billion in damages. And of course, this verdict is just sweeping through the country, could dramatically change the real estate industry. So, I'll start with what are your thoughts on the verdict?Steve:  Well I'm not surprised at all; the jury hardly deliberated at all. When they went into that jury room, they had made up their mind. They spent a couple of hours deciding on the damages. Yes, they decided on 1.8 billion, but in fact, with the trouble damages, the cost to the industry could be over $5 billion. And that is just essentially in the State of Missouri, if you project it out to the whole country, you're looking at awards that would bankrupt the industry two or three times over. But that is not what the industry eventually is going to have to pay.Victoria:  Yeah. When you heard about this verdict, what did you hope would come from it?Steve:  Well, essentially, prices have been set by the industry for 80 to 90 years. And what we'd like to see, and what we believe in at CFA is price competition. And we believe that if there were effective price competition, you would see a much more diverse marketplace. The commissions on average would come down. We predicted 3 to 4%, but just as importantly, there would be different rates for different agents. Those that are really good at what they do, have a lot of experience would be able to charge more than those who just received their license. I just in fact, received a sales license in DC, and I do not deserve 3%, you know, for facilitating a sale.Victoria:  Congratulations. And you're always welcome to join my brokerage if you…We offer a great training program. But the reason that I bring that point up is because you mentioned that 3%, or whatever the commission would be. And you know that you as a newbie; newbies never make their full commission, they're always either working on the team, under the tutelage of, you know, somebody and they should be supervised and should be getting some training.Steve:  Well, the thing is, yes, maybe they're only receiving one and a half percent. Two reports on this whole problem of training. It's very easy in almost every state for someone to get a real estate license. Yet, this is actually…Practicing brokerage is complicated or it should be complicated and demands a lot of skill and knowledge. And unfortunately, one of our reports documented how incompetent so many agents are. They're often bailed out either by their broker or in many cases they're bailed out by the agent for the other party in the sale. That's just not the way an industry should function. You have to go back historically. Back in the 1920s, even earlier, the industry tried to set prices and force all members of the industry to charge the same price. The Department of Justice in the 1940s sued them about that, and they retreated and they made those price schedules voluntary. The Department of Justice sued them again, and they backtracked again. Then they engaged the industry in widespread collusion. Discounters have tried to offer lower rates and they failed. What the litigation tries to do, and what the jury clearly understood the industry is trying to do is, or should do, is to completely separate the listing agent and the buyer agent commissions. And if that's done, there actually is a chance for there to be real price competition, which by the way we believe would help the most confident agents. Right now, there's a glut of agents. Our current research shows that nearly half of all agents sold no or one property in the last year, and that essentially then puts huge pressure on the successful agents to continue and maintain the 5 to 6% rates.Victoria:  I often find, and the reason that many of these newbies don't have sales is because they're working as secretarial duties. They're on teams where they're following people around, and so they won't have a lot of sales. Now, I'm not arguing for…You know, I agree with you there are a lot of agents, and too many, but so many of them are used as support staff. So, I think, you know…Steve:  That's right. But remember, their aspiration is to be an agent; to sell property and collect commissions. And when they can, yes, some of them, and we've actually documented in the study that we're going to release early next year, but they end up working as admin staff to successful brokers. That's true.Victoria:  Yeah. Just in the beginning of the month, The Association of Independent Mortgage Experts, they release this open letter, and they're really concerned about the decoupling of the commissions. And the main reason is, you and I have discussed this before about putting additional finances onto the buyer, and specifically they're talking about vets; veterans, and first time home buyers, and they're saying that they could be adversely affected. VA guidelines, they prevent people from being able to finance a buyer's agent. So what we would end up doing in that situation, if it was decoupled, is asking the seller for a credit to pay the cooperative commission or the commission for the buyer's agent. And then there’s the issue of the appraisal. What happens if to the appraisal when, you know, if the mortgage industry did end up being able to do this, which I don't think that they're going to agree to, the home value would then be impacted. So what are your thoughts on that?Steve:  If the industry decided that they wanted to remove those barriers, and I've talked to many people in the industry about this, it could get fixed and it could get fixed without even going to Congress. If, in fact, the real estate industry, and I think the mortgage industry and the consumer groups and housing groups would join them as well and go to the regulators and said, look, you’ve got to tweak these regulations to allow essentially a price competitive market to take place lowering the costs for buyers and sellers that would occur. Vic, I have talked to hundreds of realtors over the last 30 years, all of whom I consider to be professionals; they're the full-timers with experience. And quite a few of them complain that the industry will never be a profession until you have professional standards, which would greatly reduce the number of agents and give exclusive buyers like yourself a better opportunity to recruit clients.Victoria:  I agree with you that real estate standards need to be higher. And I will say that the National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents, are specific real estate brokers and agents who are consumer oriented with a focus only working with buyers. What is your opinion of exclusive buyer brokerage in general?Steve:  Well, I'm glad you asked me that question because I am a strong believer in exclusive buyer brokerage. What the exclusive buyer brokers recognize, and I understood this when I first started to study the industry back in the nineties, is they recognize there's a fundamental conflict of interest in the industry. You basically cannot, without exposing that conflict of interest, list properties and sell properties. So you list properties and then you have a buyer. Now, who's your obligation to, is it to the, the sellers whose properties you've listed to show them the properties first? If not, then you are actually violating your fiduciary duty to the buyer. And if, in fact, you just honor that fiduciary ability and you ignore all of your listings and look for the property that would best suit the buyer, you're then violating your fiduciary responsibilities to the seller. Exclusive buyer brokerage has recognized that conflict of interest. And so people like yourself  who said, look, we can't really represent both, so we're just going to represent buyers. And I very much hope that in the future, exclusive buyer brokerage will stabilize and grow, and that buyers end up routinely using exclusive buyer brokers. That's my hope.Victoria:  Yeah, and I appreciate that. With the decoupling of commissions, I am really worried about a couple of people that I'm thinking of that I helped this year. She was scraping money together, borrowing money from parents, and pulling it together. And I got, you know, a condo for her under list price with a 3% seller subsidy to help with closing costs. And I was overjoyed, you know, I was just so elated to be able to do this. This woman would not have been able to pay my co-op, my commission out of pocket. My concern is that, you know, that the unintended consequences of decoupling the commissions could have ramifications that could impact the industry for decades.Steve:  I think that to preserve exclusive buyer brokerage and to rationalize the market, you're going to have to allow the buyers to finance the buyer agent commission. But what people are talking about right now, and you actually alluded to it ear early in our discussion, is a concession by the seller. And I think that that's what we're going to see as a transitional stage. And that eventually will lead to the mortgage financing of the commission. But that's the way to basically ease this transition.Victoria:  How is what you're suggesting different from what's already in play? How is it that in this whole scenario the person who, or the real estate agent, and in my case, the exclusive buyer broker who is essentially doing, I think it's well understood that the person who represents the buyer is doing a lot of work. How is it that this person has become the bad guy in this whole scenario? Steve:  They're not. Well, they're not the bad guy. I mean, the listing agent is really the one who was discussing the compensation and justifying the 5 to 6%. It's not the buyer agents because we're, with a few exceptions, the buyers and the buyer agents aren't having that conversation. You know, it's true. The system has existed basically for 80 to 90 years, and it functions to the extent that homes get sold and purchase. But the problem is the industry is very inefficient; consumers overpay, or at least quite a few of them, overpay. There's no relationship between agent compensation, or very little relationship between agent compensation and the services that they provide.Victoria:  As an exclusive buyer broker, I want people to be educated. I want buyers to understand this whole process. And I also know that I can speak for the members of Neva in saying that, you know, we advocate for buyers a hundred percent, we could probably be making double what we make if we did listings and if we worked for buyers, and if we did dual agency and designated agency, but we drew a line in the sand and said, we're not functioning that way.Steve:  Well, CFA has recognized that for decades, and we commend exclusive buyer brokers who really are trying to offer good value to consumers without the kind of conflicts of interest that exists throughout the rest of the industry. So, more power to exclusive buyer brokers.Victoria:  Yeah. We appreciate your support. Steve Brobeck, has served as the Executive Director of the Consumer Federation of America from 1980 to mid-2018, and now he holds the position of Senior Fellow at CFA and he's been researching real estate issues since the 1990s. Steve, you know, it's such a pleasure to always talk to you, and I'm inviting you back because we've only scratched the surface in this particular podcast.Steve:  Well, thank you, Vic. Victoria:  Thank you. Listen Up, Home Buyers! The podcast offering advice and tips from true buyer agents. Host and Producer, Victoria Ray Henderson is the owner and broker of HomeBuyer Brokerage in the Washington D.C. area. Victoria is and a member of the National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents. 

Victoria Ray Henderson the host and producer of Listen Up Home Buyers! talks with Dawn Miller a certified appraiser in the Washington D.C. area. What is an appraisal?Do I have to have an appraisal when buying a home?How does an appraisal affect the sales price of a home?Who hires the appraiser?Who does the appraiser work for?  What is egress in a home? How does egress impact the appraisal evaluation?What is the difference between the appraised price and the sales price?Dawn Miller is a certified appraiser with over twenty years of experience appraising homes in Virginia, Maryland, and Washington D.C. She shares her insight on the appraisal process. Victoria Ray Henderson is a real estate broker and National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents member.  She owns HomeBuyer Brokerage an exclusive buyer brokerage serving buyers in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington D.C.    Listen Up, Home Buyers! The podcast offering advice and tips from true buyer agents. Host and Producer, Victoria Ray Henderson is the owner and broker of HomeBuyer Brokerage in the Washington D.C. area. Victoria is and a member of the National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents. 

Rob Shank is the owner and broker of Crossed Arrows Real Estate and a teacher at Crossed Arrows Real Estate School in Cheyenne Wyoming. Rob talks with Victoria Ray Henderson the host of Listen Up Home Buyers. Victoria is the owner & broker of HomeBuyer Brokerage serving home buyers in Washington D.C., Virginia, and Maryland. :55  How real estate representation works1:10 Exclusive buyer agency and fiduciary relationships with clients1:21  Description of the listing agent role and the buyer agent role in real estate1:55 Why did Rob join the National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents2:09 More on how real estate representation2:30 Description of Wyoming real estate representation3:08 The role of a Real Estate broker in Real estate3:34 Clients have a relationship with the broker and brokerage, not the individual real estate agent4:45 Buyer agents and listing agents work under the supervision of a broker. 4:08 What happens when the broker is representing a buyer purchasing a listing from the brokerage5:20 How can a broker be neutral in many of these relationships?5:55 The slippery slope of real estate representation6:27 A buyers agent should never act as a salesperson6:47 New marketing slogan, 'We're not going to sell you a house. We're going to help you buy one'7:08 How buyer agents get paid7:32 Exclusive buyer agency is a different mindset for the real estate agents who only work for home buyers7:56 Exclusive buyer agency is a specialty.8:20 Exclusive buyer agency brings concierge service to home buyers8:48 Crossed Arrows Real Estate is the first exclusive buyer brokerage in Wyoming           Listen Up, Home Buyers! The podcast offering advice and tips from true buyer agents. Host and Producer, Victoria Ray Henderson is the owner and broker of HomeBuyer Brokerage in the Washington D.C. area. Victoria is and a member of the National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents. 

:41 Why an exclusive buyer agent/broker?53 Rona has a background as a teacher and counselor1:16 Joined a small real estate brokerage specializing in supporting disabled people'shttps://4buyersre.com/ housing1:33   evaluating a house for wheelchair accessibility1:46 In Massachusetts in 2006, if you were a real estate agent, you worked for the seller, unless you signed off as a buyers agent, disclosures were often overlooked at that time2:16 the story that changed how she would work in real estate3:37 Anything you say to a listing agent as a buyer will be information shared with the seller to their advantage.5:03 I want to help people make a huge financial commitment to something that would house their lives5:10 don’t want to sell a thing (house)5:30 putting pictures on Tinder is like the pictures on a listing6:03 teaching people how to read through the marketing for a home is the job of an exclusive buyer agent6:03 Joining NAEBA began in 1992 or 19936:56 Rona Fischman is a founding member of the National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents7:39 What Rona did as a new agent, in 1992, taking classes through the National Association of Realtors and other class sites8:50 Tip for buyers find the houses that didn’t sell right away and you can negotiate9:50 Exclusive buyer agents understand the marketing and know how to work around itInventory is down in the DC area at this time Spring 202310:00 The challenge of protecting a home buyer in Spring 202310:30 Rona’s advice on making offers in a competitive environment, Nobody is rich enough not to care about money10:45 Based on the market study, the market conditions, the competition, and what to expect if you buy at top dollar11:00 Should a buyer compete for a property for sale?12:25 Pre-contract home inspection13:30 A buyers agent at Noon and a sellers agent at 3 pm with a designated agency13:44 How to evaluate a property?14:40 Is a three-bedroom really a 3 bedroom?14:46 The asking price is just marketing15:15 Altoid box as a junction box15:47 there’s wrong and easy to fix and there’s wrong and you need to walk away17:02 Why is Rona an exclusive buyer’s agent? She provides a body of information to enhance a buyer's life17:30 It’s a conscious decision to give up the listing side to represent home buyers 100%18:10 We know the listing agents who do good work for their clients. We respect them and love them  Listen Up, Home Buyers! The podcast offering advice and tips from true buyer agents. Host and Producer, Victoria Ray Henderson is the owner and broker of HomeBuyer Brokerage in the Washington D.C. area. Victoria is and a member of the National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents.