Latest / Fully Disclosed: Real Estate in Real Life / Episode 3: The House Has Ears. Cameras, listening devices, and the conversations you shouldn’t have during a showing.

Transcript

Episode 3: The House Has Ears. Cameras, listening devices, and the conversations you shouldn’t have during a showing. · Fully Disclosed: Real Estate in Real Life

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Fully Disclosed Real Estate, Real Life, an NP
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Dodge Council Buffs podcast created and produced by real estate
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: agents who live this stuff every day.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: We're pulling back the curtain on.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: The deals, dilemmas, and details nobody warns you about.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: Before we get into it, a quick disclosure.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: This podcast is for general information and entertainment only, not legal, tax, financial,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: or individual real estate advice. Listening doesn't create an agency relationship,
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: and the views shared by our hosts and guests may
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: not represent NP Dodge. Now let's get Fully Disclosed.
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: Welcome to Fully Disclosed Real Estate and Real Life. I'm
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: Jesse Skedler.
• 0:38
  Speaker 4: I'm Tracy True.
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: And today we are joined with Terry O'Toole and Teresa Hurt.
• 0:44
  Speaker 4: Today we're going to talk about how sometimes it feels
• 0:46
  Speaker 4: like the house has ears with all the Alexas and
• 0:48
  Speaker 4: ring cameras and all the listening devices that they have
• 0:51
  Speaker 4: in the house. Have you ever had any like creepy
• 0:55
  Speaker 4: things where you felt like you were being listened to?
• 0:58
  Speaker 5: There was one time that I was walking in a
• 1:00
  Speaker 5: house and I warned my clients. I said, no, make
• 1:03
  Speaker 5: sure we're not talking about things about the house because
• 1:06
  Speaker 5: people could be listening. And we got in there and
• 1:08
  Speaker 5: they started talking. I said, okay, guys, wait. Hey, Alexa,
• 1:12
  Speaker 5: play Def Leppard. And on cue, Def Leppard's song started playing.
• 1:18
  Speaker 5: And they both looked at me with big eyes like, okay,
• 1:21
  Speaker 5: we're being listened to.
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: Always.
• 1:23
  Speaker 5: Yep. So then they were more cautious about Not talking
• 1:28
  Speaker 5: in the house. I said, save it for the car later.
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: Right. Yeah. I had one one time where my sellers
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: were listening during the home inspection. And the home inspector
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: had made a comment to the buyers and the buyer's
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: agent saying, hey, I wasn't able to inspect the garage.
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: I couldn't get in there. They have it locked up.
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: And my sellers proceeded to get on their home device.
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: And they said, the key is in the kitchen cabinet.
• 1:58
  Speaker 5: Oh, geez.
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: Freaked those buyers out because they're there. The agent, all
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: of it, it was done. And I mean, there was
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: absolutely no saving that one at that point. And I
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: had to call the sellers up afterwards and say, guys,
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: you just completely spooked the buyers and the buyer's agent.
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: They are backing away because of what happened. And I
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: proceeded to tell them, I said, I understand. You have
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: these devices. Some of it's convenience. Some of it's security.
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: Do not listen when they are there. Let them do
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: their thing. Exactly.
• 2:37
  Speaker 4: Oh, my gosh.
• 2:38
  Speaker 5: That would be a little creepy. Yeah.
• 2:39
  Speaker 4: That is. Totally.
• 2:40
  Speaker 5: I'd be like, oh, okay.
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: Oh, I've got more stories.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: Oh, gosh.
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: Have you ever had anything like that?
• 2:47
  Speaker 6: So as far as creepiness, you know, I was in
• 2:50
  Speaker 6: the casino business for 23 years. I've had thousands of
• 2:53
  Speaker 6: cameras on us, and it was just no big deal anymore, right?
• 2:56
  Speaker 6: But I understand with buyers and sellers, you know, they
• 2:59
  Speaker 6: might feel uncomfortable.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: So one of.
• 3:03
  Speaker 6: My first clients, I sold the house in 2014, and
• 3:07
  Speaker 6: fortunately they were able to buy one of their relatives' acreage.
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: Sure.
• 3:11
  Speaker 6: So their house on the West End was vacant. And
• 3:15
  Speaker 6: they're a younger couple.
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: They're techie.
• 3:17
  Speaker 6: So they had the cameras on already. So they would
• 3:20
  Speaker 6: tell me every time somebody came in.
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: And stuff like that. You know who's watching. Yeah.
• 3:25
  Speaker 6: And then eventually I got the wife's grandma's estate in
• 3:30
  Speaker 6: a small town near here, and they put the cameras
• 3:33
  Speaker 6: up there. And every once in a while they'd call
• 3:35
  Speaker 6: me up and say, hey, Terry, did you– is there
• 3:38
  Speaker 6: a showing today? I go, no, there's somebody outside looking
• 3:41
  Speaker 6: in the windows and walking around.
• 3:43
  Speaker 5: And stuff like that.
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah.
• 3:44
  Speaker 6: So I see– That is an advantage for sellers wanting
• 3:48
  Speaker 6: to know, you know, who's walking around their properties and
• 3:50
  Speaker 6: stuff like that when they have no idea what's, you know,
• 3:53
  Speaker 6: that there's a list they're showing going on.
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 3:55
  Speaker 4: So I had a scenario like that. Now that you
• 3:57
  Speaker 4: say that, we had it sold. It was pending under
• 3:59
  Speaker 4: contract and they noticed that the cameras pinged on or whatever.
• 4:03
  Speaker 4: And their neighbor, their neighbor had a relative.
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: I don't know.
• 4:07
  Speaker 4: How they knew who she was. She was over at
• 4:09
  Speaker 4: their house digging the flowers out of the flower bed.
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: Oh, geez.
• 4:12
  Speaker 4: Oh, my God. I mean, she probably thought, well, they're moving.
• 4:17
  Speaker 4: They moved already, and they didn't take them.
• 4:18
  Speaker 5: They're not going to take the flowers.
• 4:19
  Speaker 4: So, yeah, but it was, I mean, obviously, we know
• 4:21
  Speaker 4: that the flowers, the plants and stuff are fixtures to
• 4:24
  Speaker 4: the property.
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 4:25
  Speaker 4: And so, and the funny thing is, is that it
• 4:27
  Speaker 4: was this one specific type of, like, flowered bush that
• 4:30
  Speaker 4: the buyer, like, was particularly liked, and that was the
• 4:34
  Speaker 4: thing she dug up.
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: Oh, geez. Wow. Wow. You know, it's always something, you know,
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: it just is.
• 4:41
  Speaker 4: I know.
• 4:42
  Speaker 6: So whenever I come up to a listing, I try
• 4:45
  Speaker 6: to get there first and I walk around and I,
• 4:48
  Speaker 6: one of the things besides looking at foundation, all that stuff,
• 4:51
  Speaker 6: anything that's off, but also looking to see if there's
• 4:54
  Speaker 6: surveillance around both inside and out. So when my buyers
• 4:57
  Speaker 6: show up, I'll go out and I'll meet them and tell.
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: Them, okay, we're under surveillance. So just, you know, watch
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: what we're.
• 5:03
  Speaker 6: Saying and anything that, We're going to talk about as
• 5:07
  Speaker 6: far as negotiation price.
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: Let's go somewhere away from here. We'll talk about negotiation.
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: I do the same thing. When I walk up and
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: I see that video doorbell or whatever, I put my
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: hand over it and just tell them, guys, we're being watched.
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: We're being recorded. We're being listened to. So we're not
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: going to talk anything about the house while we're here.
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: We will talk about it when we leave here. And,
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: I mean, it used to be we used to be
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: able to talk about it even once we got outside.
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: But these things can hear a conversation out in the street.
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: So you can't even talk when you're around the house.
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: So I usually tell my buyers, I'm like, just take
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: some mental notes when you get back out to your car,
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: jot them down, and then we're going to talk about
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: it when we get away from here just so that
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: we know that we have that privacy to have those conversations.
• 5:56
  Speaker 5: Definitely.
• 5:57
  Speaker 4: Well, I had one. I was showing a house. I
• 5:59
  Speaker 4: think it was in Carter Lake. And I told them
• 6:02
  Speaker 4: the same thing. Like, let's go over here and have
• 6:04
  Speaker 4: this conversation. And we walked halfway down the block. And
• 6:07
  Speaker 4: so the sellers obviously knew that we had left the
• 6:10
  Speaker 4: property because we had stood out there. We were there
• 6:12
  Speaker 4: out there for like, I mean, probably two minutes. And
• 6:14
  Speaker 4: the sellers came home. They were just like at a
• 6:18
  Speaker 4: house down the street. And so, I mean, they obviously
• 6:20
  Speaker 4: saw them. And that house had a ton of cameras.
• 6:23
  Speaker 4: They saw when we left.
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: You know, it amazes me how much we're being recorded
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: when we're in the house. You know, there was one time.
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: I had gotten a call, someone from the public had
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: called in and they were complaining because one of our
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: agents was showing the house and they were pointing out
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: the dog smell. And these sellers, which wasn't our listing
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: where our agent just had the buyer, but these sellers
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: were upset that our agent was pointing out that the
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: house had a dog smell to it. And I asked
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: them and I said, so do you have dogs? And
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: they said, well, yeah. And I said, so the agent
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: was doing their job, pointing that out. I mean, we
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: don't know what it could be. You know, that buyer
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: may not be able to smell, but may have allergies
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: to that. Exactly. Or their kids may have allergies. Even
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: if it is that far with allergies, a lot of
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: times for a buyer, that means they have to completely
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: tear out all the carpet and pad, you know, depending
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: on how bad the allergies are. And so these things
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: come into play, but that seller had never thought of
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: it that way. They were just upset because they thought
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: our buyer's agent was trying to talk them out of
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: buying the house because they had.
• 7:36
  Speaker 5: A dog smell. Yeah.
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: You know. So interesting.
• 7:40
  Speaker 5: Yeah, it's just due diligence.
• 7:41
  Speaker 4: You have to be so careful with how you say
• 7:43
  Speaker 4: some of that stuff, too. I mean, even when you
• 7:45
  Speaker 4: go into work with a seller and you're trying to
• 7:46
  Speaker 4: point that stuff out to them before listing, you have
• 7:48
  Speaker 4: to be really careful how.
• 7:49
  Speaker 5: You say it.
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: Right, right. People get defensive about it, but buyers remember
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: houses by the way they smell.
• 7:57
  Speaker 5: Oh, yeah.
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: They know how they look by online, but they remember
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: it by how it smells.
• 8:01
  Speaker 5: And if there's a distinct smell that maybe triggers... Or
• 8:05
  Speaker 5: like or dislike. It can be a whole different deal.
• 8:07
  Speaker 4: You know, when I was going through real estate classes,
• 8:10
  Speaker 4: there was a story that was told to us. I mean,
• 8:12
  Speaker 4: this has been years ago. But they were talking. They
• 8:15
  Speaker 4: were in there for their final walkthrough.
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: That's what it was.
• 8:19
  Speaker 4: And they commented on the urine smell in the house.
• 8:22
  Speaker 4: And the sellers were watching this through the camera. And
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: it wasn't even one of the buyers. It was the
• 8:29
  Speaker 4: buyer's agent. Just, like, was going on and on and
• 8:32
  Speaker 4: on about this urine smell. Like, it didn't smell like
• 8:33
  Speaker 4: that before. You know, it smells so bad.
• 8:36
  Speaker 5: It's awful.
• 8:36
  Speaker 4: And just, like, on and on and on and on.
• 8:38
  Speaker 4: And just, like, wouldn't let it go. Well, turns out
• 8:41
  Speaker 4: that the sellers, they had a special needs child who
• 8:46
  Speaker 4: had had an accident the night before.
• 8:47
  Speaker 5: Mm-hmm.
• 8:48
  Speaker 4: And so obviously when this agent is going on about this,
• 8:51
  Speaker 4: they're hitting a huge nerve. Almost blew the sale. They
• 8:54
  Speaker 4: literally almost canceled.
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: So let me ask you guys this. Why do you
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: think buyers need to be aware if there's these devices
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: in the home or that they're being watched? Why would
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: a buyer need to be aware of that?
• 9:09
  Speaker 5: I would say a lot of it is... You know,
• 9:12
  Speaker 5: if you go in with a real wow aspect on, oh,
• 9:16
  Speaker 5: that house is great, that's perfect, that's my house, and
• 9:19
  Speaker 5: the sellers are triggering this, and say a buyer asked
• 9:23
  Speaker 5: for closing costs or different things like that, it could
• 9:26
  Speaker 5: make them, like, well, they want this house no matter what.
• 9:30
  Speaker 5: We can, you know, not have to give them, yeah,
• 9:34
  Speaker 5: could hurt negotiations.
• 9:34
  Speaker 4: Keep away some of their power.
• 9:36
  Speaker 5: Yep. So just keep it on the low down, talk
• 9:40
  Speaker 5: about it out of the house. Like I always tell.
• 9:42
  Speaker 4: I mean, and then on the flip side of that, too,
• 9:44
  Speaker 4: like we were just saying, you know, you're criticizing the
• 9:46
  Speaker 4: seller and they hear it and you could have a
• 9:50
  Speaker 4: whole other set of issues. Maybe they're going to not
• 9:52
  Speaker 4: sell to you just because now they.
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: Don't like you.
• 9:54
  Speaker 5: Right.
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: Right. And I mean, I just had a situation where
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: I was showing a house to a buyer and I mean,
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: it was very uncomfortable. I get why the seller was
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: doing it. They felt like for their security they needed
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: all the cameras, but I mean, outside, just outside alone,
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: I counted four different cameras and then once we were
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: in the house, every single room had a camera in
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: it except for the primary bedroom and the bathrooms. Outside
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: of that, every single room had cameras, and one of
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: them had two cameras. And so it's just you felt
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: very uneasy walking through a house because every time we
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: turned around, there's another camera.
• 10:37
  Speaker 5: Well, it makes you trigger, is this an unsafe area,
• 10:40
  Speaker 5: or is it something to that effect even? Because people
• 10:43
  Speaker 5: might go in that whole other direction that way.
• 10:47
  Speaker 6: And I've got a contract right now. So we were
• 10:49
  Speaker 6: actually going around and counting the cameras around. But they
• 10:54
  Speaker 6: had little kids, so we're thinking, okay, is it? For
• 10:57
  Speaker 6: safety or they're watching their kids all the.
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: Time, you know, downstairs.
• 11:01
  Speaker 6: So, you know, you never know why they have that
• 11:03
  Speaker 6: many cameras. Or maybe they're having babysitters over there and
• 11:06
  Speaker 6: they want to know what the babysitters are doing, you know, possibly.
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: So you never know what their thoughts are.
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: And I think we understand both sides. But from a
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: buyer's perspective, when they're looking at a house, it can
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: give a very uneasy feeling.
• 11:22
  Speaker 4: It's eerie, like you're being watched.
• 11:24
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: Yeah, the privacy issues. You just don't feel like you
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: can actually look at the house and feel like you
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: can talk about it. And there's a lot of times,
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: like us as agents, we'll see something, and we need
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: to point it out to make sure we're helping our
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: buyers through this and what that looks like. And there's
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: times you feel weird about doing it because there's so
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: many cameras around.
• 11:47
  Speaker 5: Well, because you know what their likes and dislikes are,
• 11:49
  Speaker 5: and you see something like, oh, that's something you're looking for, or, hey,
• 11:54
  Speaker 5: it's got this that's not really– You know, it could
• 11:56
  Speaker 5: be a negative, but not a negative on the house necessarily.
• 12:00
  Speaker 4: Or even if it is negatives on the house, you know,
• 12:02
  Speaker 4: you see a crack somewhere that there shouldn't be.
• 12:05
  Speaker 5: Oh, yeah.
• 12:06
  Speaker 4: You're afraid to say anything.
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: So do you usually recommend to your buyers, wait till
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: you're outside or do you wait to get away from
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: the property altogether?
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: This year I've learned something.
• 12:18
  Speaker 6: I didn't realize how well those ring cameras pick up.
• 12:22
  Speaker 5: Pick up.
• 12:23
  Speaker 6: So when we went in, there was a ring camera,
• 12:26
  Speaker 6: so I kind of turned around, told my buyer, said, hey,
• 12:31
  Speaker 6: we're under surveillance.
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: We go in, look around.
• 12:35
  Speaker 6: We come out. I'm locking up. She started talking. I said, wait,
• 12:38
  Speaker 6: let's go to the curb. So actually, so we were
• 12:41
  Speaker 6: looking as far as the roof, and I'd got looked
• 12:45
  Speaker 6: at other... listings, prior listings, and what I could prove
• 12:49
  Speaker 6: that the roof was 15 years old. So, and we've
• 12:52
  Speaker 6: had a number of hailstorms within the last 15 years.
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: So we were talking about that, right?
• 12:57
  Speaker 6: And he says, well, if you have a home inspection,
• 13:00
  Speaker 6: they'll look it up or I can have a roofer
• 13:02
  Speaker 6: come and look at it. Not more than an hour later,
• 13:05
  Speaker 6: the selling agent calls me up and says, hey, the
• 13:08
  Speaker 6: seller was heard that we're talking about the roof.
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: And he had, he already had a roofer up there.
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: inspecting it.
• 13:17
  Speaker 6: And there was no damage. So when we got in
• 13:19
  Speaker 6: the process, the home inspector said there was some denting.
• 13:23
  Speaker 6: So I did have a roofer go up and he says,
• 13:25
  Speaker 6: there's not enough to make a claim.
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: But he was listening.
• 13:30
  Speaker 5: And you're out at the street. I was out in
• 13:31
  Speaker 5: the street.
• 13:33
  Speaker 6: So now I really have to pay attention further away
• 13:36
  Speaker 6: from the street.
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: I had a situation last fall. And we're inside the house.
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: I mean, they had Two ring cameras outside. But we're
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: inside the house. We're looking around. And I had pointed
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: out to them. I said, guys, there's crack in the
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: cooktop here. You know, just so they were aware. And
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: it wasn't but five minutes later, I get a text
• 13:59
  Speaker 3: from the listing agent telling me, hey, I forgot to
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: let you know they've got a new cooktop ordered. There
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: you go. I'm like, okay, well, that's good timing.
• 14:10
  Speaker 4: You're like, what a great thing.
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: Right. So then we're looking around some more, and we
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: had noticed one of the bathroom vanities, one of the
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: corners was chewed up on it, probably from a dog
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: or something, but it was chewed up. And so I
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: was pointing it out, and there again, it was just
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: a few minutes later. All of a sudden, I get
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: a text from the listing agent that says, oh, I
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: also forgot to let you know that they've got a
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: new vanity ordered for the bathroom. And I'm like, there's
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: something going on.
• 14:37
  Speaker 5: That's not coincidence.
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: We're not seeing cameras anywhere in the house. And I'm like,
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: what is going on? So we kept looking. Well, we
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: were in one of the bedrooms, and I happened to
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: look down, and there's a stuffed animal, and one of
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: the eyes was different. I'm like, looked at it, and
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: I'm like, that's a camera. That's how they're watching this.
• 14:57
  Speaker 5: But that thing could hear you all throughout. In every
• 14:59
  Speaker 5: single room. That's crazy.
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: It could hear us.
• 15:01
  Speaker 4: So did you tell your buyer? Did you point it
• 15:04
  Speaker 4: out to them when you were getting these text messages?
• 15:06
  Speaker 5: Were you telling them?
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: I was telling them that, hey, I just got a
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: text message from a listing agent. Not putting it together there. Right.
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: But then once I noticed that, Once we were away
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: from the property, then I said, hey, guys, I figured
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: out what was going on. I explained to them what
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: it was. But talk about strange.
• 15:26
  Speaker 5: Well, that would give you an eerie feeling. She calls
• 15:28
  Speaker 5: you on everything you pointed out.
• 15:30
  Speaker 3: And there was one in each of the kids' bedrooms.
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: And they were positioned in a way where they watched
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: the bed area. So there again, I'm thinking.
• 15:38
  Speaker 5: Security or something. Security for the kids, right.
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: For some reason. But it was just... It's just very strange.
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: So this is why we have them always sign that document,
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: that audio surveillance. Any property we show them could have
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: some sort of audio surveillance of some kind.
• 15:58
  Speaker 5: You're being watched and listened to pretty much everywhere you go.
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: Everywhere, all the time.
• 16:02
  Speaker 5: Whether it's public or a house. Right.
• 16:06
  Speaker 4: Buyers obviously need to assume that they are being watched
• 16:08
  Speaker 4: at all times. We've obviously covered that. But I think
• 16:11
  Speaker 4: a lot of people don't really think about the fact
• 16:12
  Speaker 4: that sellers need to be a little bit leery of
• 16:14
  Speaker 4: all these devices and stuff too.
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: Yes, they do.
• 16:18
  Speaker 5: Most definitely.
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: How do you guys.
• 16:20
  Speaker 4: Coach your sellers while you're getting ready to list and everything?
• 16:24
  Speaker 4: How are you coaching your sellers to kind of warn
• 16:27
  Speaker 4: them about.
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: All of this? So I usually start off with just
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: a conversation with them saying, hey, First, we're going to
• 16:34
  Speaker 3: hit it on a disclosure side. Then you decide if
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: they're staying or leaving the cameras. But then outside of that,
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: I start telling them, guys, when their showing's happening, don't
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: be watching those cameras. You are not going to want
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: to know what is being said because there are a
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: lot of times, even though we coach our buyers differently,
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: there's a lot of times these conversations are still candid
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: when they're there, and they're going to speak freely. For
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: a seller... They don't notice things like, you know, you
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: get nose blind on stuff. So they don't notice smells
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: in their home. But a new buyer is going to
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: pick up on it right away when they walk in
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: and they may comment on it. And so I just,
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: I coach my sellers. Don't listen. You are not going
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: to want to know what's being said.
• 17:21
  Speaker 6: And I think it's a 50-50 deal. It just depends
• 17:24
  Speaker 6: on that particular seller. Because some of the sellers want
• 17:27
  Speaker 6: to know if there's something wrong with the house, they
• 17:29
  Speaker 6: will fix it.
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: Sure.
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: But some of their sellers are offended by it.
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: And I get it.
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: They've spent their lifetime there most of the time.
• 17:36
  Speaker 5: Their pride and joy is that house.
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: They put money into it. Yeah, it's their home. It's
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: their pride. So they get offended by it.
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: So it's a gray area.
• 17:46
  Speaker 4: Or they've put a lot of time and care into
• 17:48
  Speaker 4: designing how they want things to look. But it's not
• 17:50
  Speaker 4: always everybody's taste.
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 17:52
  Speaker 4: And then so it's easy to be offended when someone
• 17:54
  Speaker 4: says they hate your paint. color choice.
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: Correct.
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: It's always amazing how buyers can tend to get hung
• 18:01
  Speaker 3: up on somebody's furniture or what they have hung up
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: on the wall.
• 18:05
  Speaker 5: It's not staying with the house. Right. Think of your
• 18:08
  Speaker 5: stuff here. We've got to coach them past that.
• 18:11
  Speaker 4: The only thing that's permanent is the layout.
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 18:15
  Speaker 4: You can change everything else.
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 18:17
  Speaker 5: Exactly.
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: So, I mean, but what else?
• 18:20
  Speaker 4: As far as, you know, just don't wash it because
• 18:22
  Speaker 4: you don't want to be offended. I feel like there's
• 18:23
  Speaker 4: other reasons why. for the sellers to not be paying
• 18:26
  Speaker 4: attention to that.
• 18:27
  Speaker 5: Well, I think it's just some privacy. You know, years ago,
• 18:30
  Speaker 5: you didn't have cameras in every house. So you walked in,
• 18:33
  Speaker 5: you could freely talk about things. You could, you know, discuss, hey,
• 18:37
  Speaker 5: I like this or don't like that. And it's not
• 18:40
  Speaker 5: a bad thing about this house. That's just your preference
• 18:44
  Speaker 5: and what you like or dislike, you know. So now
• 18:48
  Speaker 5: everything's being recorded, so everybody's on tiptoes, and it's like
• 18:51
  Speaker 5: you can't take offense. Right. to something that's being said
• 18:55
  Speaker 5: because it may not be in a bad way necessarily
• 18:57
  Speaker 5: it's just not a fit for your people if.
• 18:59
  Speaker 4: You hear them say something and now you have knowledge
• 19:02
  Speaker 4: now what's it now we have to now we have
• 19:04
  Speaker 4: to disclose that right.
• 19:06
  Speaker 5: So well my sellers in this one of my last
• 19:09
  Speaker 5: listings they were adamant the home inspector not be there
• 19:12
  Speaker 5: alone and i'm like i said that's fine just stay
• 19:15
  Speaker 5: up don't ask them questions unless they ask you something
• 19:19
  Speaker 5: obviously but Like I said, just stay out of their way.
• 19:22
  Speaker 5: And when the buyers came, obviously, with the agent, they
• 19:25
  Speaker 5: got out of there because, yeah, you don't want to.
• 19:27
  Speaker 5: Don't need to know that.
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: I had one, you know, just earlier this year. And
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: I knew that they had cameras around. They were watching everything.
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: And I told them, I said, guys, don't watch it.
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: I said, matter of fact, I'm going to even tell you,
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: if you feel like you would be tempted by that,
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: just shut your cameras off while they're here for their inspection. Yeah. Yeah, no. Absolutely.
• 19:51
  Speaker 3: The one seller told me, he's like, yep, I end
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: up shutting them off. I knew I'd want to keep looking. Yeah.
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: And so, but you really, I mean, you hate to
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: do it, but you have to do it.
• 20:01
  Speaker 5: You have to.
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: At the same time, you know.
• 20:03
  Speaker 5: Because they need that privacy. That's their inspection. They paid
• 20:06
  Speaker 5: for it, you know.
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 20:09
  Speaker 6: And maybe some of the things that they don't like
• 20:10
  Speaker 6: about it, they're not going to ask to be fixed either.
• 20:13
  Speaker 6: So you don't know if they're going to have it
• 20:14
  Speaker 6: until you get that inspection.
• 20:16
  Speaker 5: Yep.
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: Addendum. They're talking about it.
• 20:19
  Speaker 5: They can fix this. They can do this, but they're
• 20:21
  Speaker 5: going to point it out and they're going to point
• 20:22
  Speaker 5: out every little thing that you never thought was wrong
• 20:26
  Speaker 5: with your house is going to be brought up. You
• 20:28
  Speaker 5: can't take offense to it.
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: Right. And you got to think of it as a
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: used car.
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: Exactly.
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: You know, buyers too.
• 20:35
  Speaker 5: Yep.
• 20:36
  Speaker 6: You're getting a used car just like you're getting a
• 20:38
  Speaker 6: used house. Some of these houses are 100, 120 years old.
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: They're not new. So there's going to be issues with it.
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: So now that you've shown up to the house, the
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: buyers know that it has cameras. What if they want them?
• 20:56
  Speaker 3: How do you guide the buyers through that? I want
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: all the cameras that are here now. Your buyer tells
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: you that.
• 21:02
  Speaker 4: If they're not creeped out by it.
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: Well, there's that part, yeah.
• 21:05
  Speaker 4: They're not creeped out, and they're like, oh, these cameras
• 21:07
  Speaker 4: are awesome. I want them.
• 21:08
  Speaker 6: All I tell them, everything might be negotiable.
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: You just ask for it.
• 21:15
  Speaker 4: But with the cameras attached to the house, are they
• 21:17
  Speaker 4: considered an attachment? Are they technically part of the house,
• 21:20
  Speaker 4: like the TV brackets and the curtain rods?
• 21:22
  Speaker 5: Technically, they're part of the home.
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: That's why I tell the sellers ahead of time.
• 21:26
  Speaker 6: You've got to tell me which ones, if and or
• 21:29
  Speaker 6: any of the cameras or the ring doorbells are going
• 21:32
  Speaker 6: to stay or not.
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: We have to put it on the seller's disclosure statement.
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: I feel like the.
• 21:37
  Speaker 4: Ring doorbells and, again, the blink cameras and all that,
• 21:40
  Speaker 4: that causes so much of the negotiation. There's a lot
• 21:44
  Speaker 4: of that about whether or not they stay.
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: Especially at a final walkthrough. They show up and now
• 21:49
  Speaker 3: all of a sudden the ring camera's gone. And they're like,
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: hold up here. That was supposed to be. Attached. It
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: didn't state it anywhere.
• 21:57
  Speaker 4: Well, isn't it? So if it's like the ones that
• 22:00
  Speaker 4: are wired into the house, then they are. But if
• 22:02
  Speaker 4: it's the ones that are just like with the battery,
• 22:04
  Speaker 4: then they're not.
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: Still considered attached.
• 22:07
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: You got to attach it to the house somehow.
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: You're screwing it to the house.
• 22:11
  Speaker 5: That's fair.
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: You know, so yeah. So I think it's important to
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: address that up front with sellers, but then also on
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: the buyer side, especially if they ask the question.
• 22:21
  Speaker 6: Right.
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: You're going to want to go back to the property disclosure.
• 22:24
  Speaker 3: If a seller didn't disclose it, maybe you go the
• 22:27
  Speaker 3: extra step and make sure it's written into the buyer's
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: contract for them if they want them.
• 22:31
  Speaker 5: You can ask for it. All they can do is
• 22:33
  Speaker 5: say yes or no.
• 22:34
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 22:35
  Speaker 4: Well, I think on that one that I had, I
• 22:36
  Speaker 4: think they ended up leaving them. I think he just
• 22:38
  Speaker 4: disconnected his service and then the buyers connected it in
• 22:42
  Speaker 4: their own name. But they wanted the cameras.
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: And that's one thing I always kind of forget.
• 22:51
  Speaker 6: When the buyers get it, I have to tell the
• 22:53
  Speaker 6: sellers that they have to disconnect their service.
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: So then the buyers can put their service on.
• 22:58
  Speaker 3: Exactly.
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 23:00
  Speaker 4: My parents just bought a house and it had all
• 23:02
  Speaker 4: kinds of like Amazon technology in it. Like the garage
• 23:05
  Speaker 4: door opener was through the phone, through their Amazon app
• 23:08
  Speaker 4: and the thermostat and all kinds of stuff. And so
• 23:11
  Speaker 4: we had to do that exact thing. We had to
• 23:13
  Speaker 4: go back to the seller and have them disconnect everything
• 23:16
  Speaker 4: so we could hook it up so that we could
• 23:17
  Speaker 4: change the thermostat in the house.
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: Right. Right. So interesting.
• 23:24
  Speaker 5: The times are different.
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: The real estate age we're in.
• 23:28
  Speaker 6: And if they still have the app for the garage door, and.
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: They're discontented the seller can mess with them.
• 23:35
  Speaker 4: Put the garage door on. So that brings on the
• 23:37
  Speaker 4: whole other thing, too, even with the cameras. So, like,
• 23:39
  Speaker 4: with the garage door, my dad actually took that garage
• 23:42
  Speaker 4: door opener out and replaced it because he just didn't
• 23:45
  Speaker 4: trust it.
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 23:46
  Speaker 4: And, Steph, I would be the same way with the cameras.
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 23:49
  Speaker 4: If they disconnected the service, how do you know for
• 23:51
  Speaker 4: sure that they can't still get in? I don't know.
• 23:54
  Speaker 4: That's creepy.
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: I don't like it. Well, and I think you could
• 23:58
  Speaker 3: even go as far as Google light bulbs.
• 24:02
  Speaker 5: Oh, yeah.
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: You can walk in a room and tell it to
• 24:05
  Speaker 3: turn on because it's listening.
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 24:07
  Speaker 3: So there again, our house has ears. The light bulbs. Yes. Yeah.
• 24:12
  Speaker 5: That's crazy.
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: And now your seller wants to take all those light bulbs. Yeah. Well,
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: the purchase agreement says those stay. So there's just so
• 24:22
  Speaker 3: much discussion we have to have with these sellers ahead
• 24:25
  Speaker 3: of time now with what can actually be taken out
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: of the house and what's considered staying now. And if
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: they do want to take it, they need to make
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: sure that they are disclosing that on the property. This
• 24:38
  Speaker 3: does not convey with the property.
• 24:40
  Speaker 5: Exactly.
• 24:41
  Speaker 4: The light bulbs go away.
• 24:43
  Speaker 5: You have to replace them off.
• 24:46
  Speaker 3: Of course, I speak from experience on that one because
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: I got the call at the final walkthrough and my
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: sellers took the Google light bulbs. I was like, what
• 24:54
  Speaker 3: is going on? It hadn't ran through my head at
• 24:58
  Speaker 3: that point yet.
• 24:58
  Speaker 5: I wouldn't have even thought.
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: Guess what I don't forget now? Everything's networked. Yeah. And
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: it's always listed. This is why our house has ears. Ears.
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: Too much longer and we can actually say it's got
• 25:09
  Speaker 3: eyes too. It's always watching us.
• 25:11
  Speaker 5: Well, it is pretty much watching us.
• 25:13
  Speaker 4: It already is.
• 25:14
  Speaker 5: It already is.
• 25:16
  Speaker 6: George Orwell's 1984 is coming to life.
• 25:21
  Speaker 5: Exactly.
• 25:23
  Speaker 3: Big brothers watching.
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 25:26
  Speaker 3: And sellers. That's funny. So with all that being said,
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: what would be your warning to your buyers when you
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: show up?
• 25:38
  Speaker 6: I just turn around and say, hey, there's monitors here.
• 25:42
  Speaker 6: We just need to be careful what we're saying.
• 25:44
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 25:44
  Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.
• 25:45
  Speaker 5: I just always say, you know what, keep our private conversations, thoughts, questions,
• 25:51
  Speaker 5: you know, that could maybe jeopardize or whatever, anything. Just
• 25:56
  Speaker 5: keep them for later. Talk about it at the car.
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 25:59
  Speaker 6: Definitely not out in the middle of the street because
• 26:02
  Speaker 6: they still pick it up.
• 26:03
  Speaker 5: Not in the middle of the street anymore because we're
• 26:05
  Speaker 5: being listened to. So, yeah, you'd have to definitely take
• 26:08
  Speaker 5: it farther.
• 26:09
  Speaker 3: I do the same thing. We'll talk anything about the
• 26:12
  Speaker 3: house when we're away from the house.
• 26:14
  Speaker 5: And I'm like, you can talk about it. Just keep
• 26:16
  Speaker 5: it general. You know, anything major, you know, just do
• 26:20
  Speaker 5: it later.
• 26:21
  Speaker 3: It could be we come back to the office and
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: talk it over. It could be we just have a
• 26:26
  Speaker 3: phone conversation.
• 26:27
  Speaker 5: Exactly.
• 26:28
  Speaker 3: Regardless what it is, it'll be away from that property.
• 26:32
  Speaker 5: Yep, definitely.
• 26:34
  Speaker 3: Now, also, what would we tell our sellers?
• 26:39
  Speaker 4: Don't watch.
• 26:40
  Speaker 3: Don't be tempted.
• 26:41
  Speaker 4: You don't want to know.
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: But the thing is, it's their property.
• 26:46
  Speaker 3: It is.
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: And I get it, too.
• 26:47
  Speaker 3: I get it.
• 26:49
  Speaker 5: It is their property, but just respect that people are
• 26:54
  Speaker 5: coming in to look at your house to buy it.
• 26:57
  Speaker 5: So you can always have hands on everything.
• 27:01
  Speaker 4: Sometimes it's like a good idea, just like we were
• 27:03
  Speaker 4: saying earlier, of are you going to take the cameras?
• 27:06
  Speaker 5: Yes.
• 27:06
  Speaker 3: Perfect.
• 27:07
  Speaker 4: Take them down now.
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: Now.
• 27:08
  Speaker 5: Yeah. Take them down ahead.
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: Before we even hit it with photography. Right.
• 27:12
  Speaker 4: Yeah. Because if they see them in the house, they
• 27:14
  Speaker 4: see them in the pictures, they're technically part of the house.
• 27:17
  Speaker 4: And so, I mean.
• 27:18
  Speaker 5: Exactly.
• 27:19
  Speaker 3: Very true. I always encourage the same thing. Yeah.
• 27:22
  Speaker 4: Then it's not even an issue.
• 27:23
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 27:24
  Speaker 5: And I do that too. I was just like, if
• 27:26
  Speaker 5: you're taking it.
• 27:26
  Speaker 4: Unless it's an Alexa because that is.
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: That's portable.
• 27:29
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 27:29
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 27:30
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Now with the Alexa, with it being portable, that wouldn't.
• 27:34
  Speaker 3: necessarily stay with it's not attached right.
• 27:35
  Speaker 4: Exactly so that's that argument's not going to work.
• 27:38
  Speaker 3: On that but right right exactly yeah perfect so i
• 27:42
  Speaker 3: mean with all that being said i think we gave
• 27:45
  Speaker 3: the public something to think about today exactly so just
• 27:48
  Speaker 3: be careful when when they're out there when they're looking
• 27:51
  Speaker 3: at properties.
• 27:52
  Speaker 5: Always eyes watching you always.
• 27:56
  Speaker 3: So with that we do encourage everyone Send in any questions,
• 28:02
  Speaker 3: anything that you would like to have us cover. You
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: can email us at fullydisclosedre at gmail.com. And anybody that
• 28:12
  Speaker 3: sends something in, we will keep it completely anonymous. No
• 28:16
  Speaker 3: names will be dropped in any of it. Also, we
• 28:19
  Speaker 3: encourage everybody, while you're out there, hit the like, the
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: subscribe on Spotify, Apple, YouTube. Give us a follow. however
• 28:29
  Speaker 3: it is that you consume the content. And I would say, guys,
• 28:32
  Speaker 3: with that, today, we are fully disclosed. We'll see you
• 28:36
  Speaker 3: next time.