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Top 5 Real Estate Questions Right Now (Answered by a 28-Year Santa Clarita Agent) · Connor with Honor: AI, Real Estate and Real Life

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Top five real estate questions right now on the internet.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Let's get to it.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, is my agent's commission still negotiable or am I stuck with six percent?
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Usually there's two agents involved.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: In some states, that's a requirement.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: In some states, dual agency is illegal.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: So having the same agent represent you on the sale of your residence and also have that same agent representing the buyer coming in on your residence is illegal.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: State of California, where I happen to be located, it's legal.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's called dual agency, and it is okay in this particular state.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: Certain agents like myself, I'm a seller's only agent.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: Go to sellersonlyagent.com.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: I don't practice dual agency, do not represent buyers.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: For 21 years, I did.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: For the last seven years, no.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm working with sellers exclusively.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: However, when you're talking about commissions, it's the agent that you're hiring to represent you in the sale of your residence.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: That's whatever you're going to negotiate with them.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: And then, of course, the other fee from the buyer's agent.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: If a buyer's agent does bring a buyer to your residence and you agree to pay you, hey, this is my fee, and that's too much for you, or they can't justify their position in it and you don't want to pay it, you can go hire somebody else.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: That's how it works.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: So absolutely 100%, every commission out there with regard to real estate agents is negotiable.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll tell you this: it seems that if we go to other entities involved in the sales process, and I do this for my real estate sellers, I'll go to escrow, try to get discounts there.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: I'll try to get discounts everywhere I can, even when it comes to HOA documents.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: That if you have a homeowners association, seller has to pay to get those documents.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: And to me, some of those fees are stupidly just huge.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't make any sense because it's uh it's an email.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's not like you're having to make these out of chiseled marble.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's an email.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: But again, they have their little games, and I try to get those discounts.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: Do they listen all the time?
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely not.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: But usually they don't have anybody ask.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: And as far as I'm concerned, seller's money, well, that's seller's money should try to stay with the seller as much as possible.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: So I try to get that negotiation done as well.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: Number two, do I need a real estate agent at all?
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: Or can I just do it myself?
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: Can I do it FISBO?
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's called for sale by owner.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely yes.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: How you would do that is you would contact an escrow company and see if they would be able to get your house and represent you, not so much represent on the real estate end of it, but get the proper documentation put in place.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: I had a friend of mine call a couple of years ago, wanted to sell his residence.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: And you know what?
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: Again, this is kind of breaking ranks, right?
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't charge him, but he wanted to know how to do it.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: I explained to him, turned them on to the escrow company.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: He already had the buyer himself, had everything done.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: He was selling it to a relative, and it all worked out fine at the end.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when when you're representing somebody that's like close to you or having somebody close to you want to purchase the residence, you know, that that's kind of the way that worked out in that particular case.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: But if it's somebody you don't know, there's so many lawsuits out here.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I hate to throw that as being the reason why you should get somebody, but that insurance bond's important, especially when you get called on the carpet for something that they believe that you might have done that sliding them or caused them issues.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: But absolutely, yes, you don't need a real estate agent to buy or sell real estate, at least in the state of California.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: Number three, what's my home actually worth?
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: And why is the Zillow number wrong?
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: That's an assumption, but you know, it's a the their system is built around them wanting to take your information and sell it to many different agents.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: I was on the fancy Zillow premiere uh program for a while, and uh yeah, never again.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: Uh basically you had a short window of time to be able to call back uh these people, and it wasn't just you, you got the the the people, the leads information, whether it was a buyer or a seller, 12, 13 other people got it, it kind of went out to everybody.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: First people that responded, though, were the ones that actually got it, and then those phone calls are recorded, and there was just a lot of uh nonsense and nuance to that particular system.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: I'd rather get it more cleanly, not in that realm.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: But again, if you have a system, not saying Zillow does this, but read between the lines.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: If you do have a business model that's built around you getting people's information and having them use those agents that are paying you for leads, having those agents upsell, you're gonna find out that sometimes those numbers, the programs, they call them algorithms, but basically the the manipulation or the program that's put in place to be able to establish value, there could be it could be done in such a way that it elicits some kind of a favorable position for you to then kind of adjust to for these syndication companies.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: Reading between the lines, yeah, in some cases it could happen.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: You just need to really look at what's the what the data is.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: So whenever you go to a real agent, somebody that knows their business, they should be pulling the information offline and they should be then looking at property recordings, everything in the multiple listing service that's sold within the past 100 days, 180 days.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: That's apples to apples comparison with yours.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: Even best Santa Clarita Valley, we have most of our area built on the track system, which goes back to the original builders, who those builders were, D.R.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: Horton or KB Holmes or whomever, Tri-Point, whomever it happened to be.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: And then we're able to go into the historical record, look at those different plans, the different elevations offered, the different amenities that were offered with each type of residence.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: Usually there's two, three, four, five different types of residences, maybe multiple elevations, and elevations refer to the outside design.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: That being the case, we're able to go back in the historical record and we're able to look, okay, this is the model three, this is the model four.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: The model four seems to sell higher at the model three, even though they're the same square footage, because one of them has a driveway you can park cars in, the other one dumps off into the street, and you get the gist.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: So what we do is then we look at the data, everything that's sold in the past 180 days.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if we can find those model matches, if yours, let's say, a plan four in whatever neighborhood, and we're able to find three or four other plan fours that closed in the last even 90 days, that would be the sweet spot, and then we will be able to very much gauge the value.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: The online systems don't do it like that.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: They're pulling tax records and they don't break it down to get those individual differences in properties.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: If they have uh property, for example, in Bridgeport, they're gonna get that particular track, but it's not gonna make a difference whether the backyard's on New Hall Ranch Road or whether it's inside the community on the other side near the walking path, for example.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: And the properties near the walking path are probably gonna carry a$40,000 to$50,000 higher premium than those other properties that are have the backyard, which is New Hall Ranch Road.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: But they're not gonna see that.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: That's why you need to reach out to somebody that's local in nature and knows what how to answer that question.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: Uh sellersonlyagent.com.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: Number four, should I sell now or wait for rates to come down?
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: The old adage is marry the house, not the rate.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: Whenever you're buying something and you're looking at interest rates, you're buying for more than the interest rate, I think.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: If you're not, if you're only buying for interest rate, hell, I wouldn't buy now.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: I'd hopefully wait until rates come down.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: But if you're buying for more than the interest rate, and you look at the way that tax deduction for the interest taxes, ask your CPA.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: I met with a great one today.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: If you want the referral, you you ask them and find out what that number looks like to you.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: It might be that interest rate aside, the more interest that you're paying, the more you're going to be able to qualify to have a return back on your taxes.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe there's a bigger reason than to purchase real estate.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if properties come down and you haven't been paying that long on your mortgage, or if the interest rate break is so much more than you do a refinance.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: There are certain loans right now going in, and I talk to sellers about this when buyers are coming through, because we always look at every buyer's loan when they're coming to make offers on my seller's property.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: Those I've seen various loan programs structured where they are able to get a free refinance up to three times after they close escrow on a residence.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: When is it not worth it?
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you got to look at the charges.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: See, you have to look at how much these each of these refines cost.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you're doing it within the six months, you've paid six months on your mortgage.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: When you do a refinance, your mortgage starts again at 30 years.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: Six months, it's not too deep into it.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: But if you've been paying on your house for five years, now you're doing a refinance, you're gonna start again at 30.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: That cost savings per month better be able to outlast you and make sense financially.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: So look at that particular stuff.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, you don't want to marry the the uh interest rates, you want to marry the residents.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: It should be the residents that's the focus.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: If you can't afford it because the interest rate's high and you're gonna be strapped every single month and you're in a much more comfortable position now, there's a good argument that you should kind of sit tight and maybe rock it out and see what happens.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: But another rule of thumb is we don't know what the future is gonna entail.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: It could be that properties begin to get more expensive if interest rates come down.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: Devil's advocate on the other side of properties could become less expensive if interest rates don't come down.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: I do believe that if we do see an interest rate break, interest rate break, there are enough people out there that are waiting in the wings, not wanting to purchase right now until interest rates come down.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: That will thereby increase the competition on the real estate market, and it could become standing room only, like we saw during COVID.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: Right now, though, that's not the case.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's taking longer and longer for properties to sell.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: In Santa Clarita Valley, I have that data at scv123.com.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: How do I pick an agent who isn't going to screw me?
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I should have read these before.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's a good one.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: A couple things, transparency is important.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: I know that's an overused word, but talk to them, give them a call, book a time on their calendar, look them up online.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: Reviews aside, reviews are great, and it's wonderful to have a whole bunch of reviews, but you talking to that person, I think, is valuable, and you finding out how much they listen.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: Are they just running flapping their gums, running off at the mouth, shooting off at the hip, and not actually asking you what you want, and then trying to direct you in the best way, giving you things to ask that you might not have thought of, giving you particular solutions to your issues, and even giving you issues that you don't even, you didn't even know were issues.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: For example, whenever I talk to people that are thinking about selling real estate, one of the things we discuss is that competition in the neighborhood.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: Another thing we discuss is whether or not there's going to be a dual agency included in this particular transaction at all.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: And they're very comfortable with me saying that I do not represent buyers and I don't even refer buyers on their own residence.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: If somebody walks in, say, listen, uh Connor, I don't have an agent, I want you to represent any, they don't represent buyers.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: That's just the way it is.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: Well, then can you represent me to an agent that's gonna get me in on this house?
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: I said, no.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: That's arm's reach to me.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not interested in doing that.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna have to go find your own agent.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: Can you make a recommendation?
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: You go out there, you find your own agent, they'll represent you, they'll write the offer, and we'll just take it from there.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: And it's good.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: All's good in the world.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: Then I get to set on my seller's relationship, no payback, none of that other nonsense.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: And the person goes out and they get the agent that they want.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: The agent comes, writes the offer, and here we are, we negotiate.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: They have they their agent representing that buyer negotiates that commission that they write in on that contract.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: I take it back to my seller, and I'm not fighting with myself, acting like I'm some kind of bipolar alien.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: They're actually able to deal with me, and I deal with them, and I take it back to my seller.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: And it's it's usually no problem.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: It works out very, very well.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: That was number five.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's difficult.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I've been in this business 28 years.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: I was a cop a long time, play law enforcement.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have that same things the same way as a lot of people.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: I don't trust loyalty, it's a big thing.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: Ultimately, you're gonna have to make the decision.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: You might talk to somebody that comes off, you know, like butter and cream, and they're they're they're they're the bees' knees, and they're just fantastic, and that's who you want to hire.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: That's great.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: You should go with that gut.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: Your gut is very, very important in the decision-making process.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: I really believe that.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of people say, well, it has nothing to do with feeling, you got to go buy this data.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: You know, there's a lot of stuff now that people can pay for online, and they don't even have to pay.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: They can use AI to build out systems that show particular things, even if they have the worst reputation in the world.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's going to come down to you, your instinct, your humanness, talking to them and getting that feel.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: All right, that's number five for the five top questions today, as we close out April 2026, what people are asking about real estate.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Connor with Honor, sellers only agent.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: We'll see you tomorrow.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for watching.