Speaker 1 0:06
Welcome back, WRPB in the WRPB studios. Real estate is a hot market right now, if you're looking to buy or sell, this is a great time to do it. The real estate market is booming. But in order to get the best quality home, and the home that's right for you, you want to reach out to the people that are professionals in the business. With me today, I've got John Heaning from McCurdy and Company. Thanks for coming in. John.

Speaker 2 0:34
Thank you, I appreciate your offer.

Speaker 1 0:36
Why is the real estate market so hot right now; what's going on?

Speaker 2 0:40
It's terrific, isn't it, it's just the way it is, it's very hot. I tell you the market is going to change even more, we have low rates as far as for loans. And with everything going around the country, people just want to come down to Florida and be a little bit more safer. That's pretty much why we're blowing up. Prices are high on the housing, but the interest rates are so low that you can't get a bad deal.

Speaker 1 1:12
So you can still have an affordable mortgage, regardless because of the higher value of the house.

Speaker 2 1:20
Yes. And people know that, the ones that are selling, so they make the house nice also so they can get a good price on it, because they know it's gonna sell but they want to be able to have a good house to sell and not have to mess around with working on trying to sell a house.

Speaker 1 1:40
Now you've been in the real estate business for a little while now, but you were doing something prior to that that was kind of in the same market.

Speaker 2 1:49
Yes, yes, I was a home inspector here on the Treasure Coast for 18 years and I know all the houses in this area after 18 years and seeing how it grew, doing inspections. Then I was getting a little older didn't want to crawl into attics anymore. So for the last six years, or five and a half years, I've been doing real estate.

Speaker 1 2:13
So you kind of have the inside outside of the real estate business because you can probably foresee things with a home that might need improvement before a buyer or seller.

Speaker 2 2:30
Yes, that's what makes me stand out. I like to always try to point that out that there's some great realtors out there. And in every market, there's good and bad, but there's really some really great realtors out there. But what makes me stand out and why I think people should use me is my background of 18 years of home inspections. If I'm listing a house, I like to get in there and give him a free inspection. I go through the whole house so we find out what's wrong with it. If there's something major that needs to be fixed, and it's going to shut down or cause an issue at the closing table, we want to get it taken care of upfront. And when somebody comes to see a house that I'm listing, they know that it's already been looked at, almost everything would be fixed. There's some stuff we don't worry about, or it's just not a big enough issue. But there's no major issues, no termites, things like that. So I'm a termite inspector also. So I look through the whole house, make sure it's good to go before we list it. And then on the buying side, I got a different set of eyes than most realtors, I will be able to see things that as we do in walkthroughs of houses that this might be an issue, let's walk away from it. Or this looks like a really solid house, I don't see too many main issues just by the walkthrough to begin with. So then we know we can should be able to put an offer in on it without having any big issues.

Speaker 1 3:57
So I'm sure being on both sides of the coin, if you will. You can go through a house and probably see things that were pointed out in an inspection that they kind of cosmetically made look little prettier, but didn't really correct the situation.

Speaker 2 4:18
That's for sure. Good point, because it does happen a lot too. It's that lipstick on the pig type issues. And sure enough, it didn't sell because it had issues and now they just made it look good so that's my expertise is finding that stuff ahead of time.

Speaker 1 4:36
So, on a purchaser's side, that's really an advantage. What area do you generally specialize in? I know that you do some commercial, but you're mostly residential...

Speaker 2 4:53
Mostly residential. I have done several commercial transfers too, just lately a lawyer's office, so I do some commercial, but it's mostly residential. And that's what I did inspections on both commercial and residential. So I feel good about being a realtor that knows what I'm doing.

Speaker 1 5:17
Now, can you do transactions for people out of state? I know that there's people that are looking from New York to come down to Florida, can you work with those people so that you can take care of the local things until they get here?

Speaker 2 5:34
Oh, yes, terrific question. Because what I do is I market when I get a house to sell, the very first place that I'm marketing is the neighborhood that the house is in - New York, New Jersey in Miami. They are the hottest areas coming here, and then we have some from Ohio too, but mostly New York, New Jersey and now with this devastation up there, we might have a lot more coming down and Miami. So I'll hit the neighborhoods that are in the neighborhood that the house is in, because this family may want to have more family come down. So they're good to talk to you about the houses coming up on the market. If you've got a brother or sister or family member that wants to be in the neighborhood that you're in, those are good, but otherwise, New York, New Jersey, they're moving down and I do all the work for them down here. And just like actually, this morning, at six o'clock, I was emptying a house out that the people moved out of and there was a lot of trash and stuff left behind. And I know I have a Jersey family moving down. So I went over there and pulled all the trash into the street. So I do a little bit extra, I like to think that I'm a little bit more above than the average realtor. So I will go out of my way to make sure things are right. And make people happy for it.

Speaker 1 6:52
So previous to all of your home inspection and real estate, you were in the military?

Speaker 2 7:03
Yes, yes. And I did want to point out the this beautiful American flag you guys always have behind people when they're doing these interviews is great. I think we need to show the flag a lot more. I was in the Navy for 26 years. Loved it, retired. Thanks for putting that flag up. And 26 years in the Navy, I learned to work with people from one extreme to the other. And we were all one type of person, there's not a issue there. You get to learn that people are people on the inside. And that's the way you should deal with people.

Speaker 1 7:39
There you go. Does being in the military help you a little bit more do you think with the housing situations along that line?

Speaker 2 7:50
Yes, especially moving often. Moving every three to five years, you learn who's helping you with buying and selling, give you an idea of what is needed. So as a buyer or seller, I have learned what works with realtors what don't work. Even with the home inspection business, you see realtors that will get the paperwork done and that's it and others that will do a lot for you. So I learned a lot before I became a realtor and then I have a lot of friends in the real estate business because of my home inspection business. I had a lot of people help me out to be the realtor that I am today.

Speaker 1 8:32
It's important to be able to work with other people, because it's not always your house or your listing that you're looking at for a purchaser. So to be able to work with that other realtor and have that camaraderie obviously is important to both the buyer and the seller.

Speaker 2 8:55
Correct. Do you want those both sides to work together? There's always an issue that something will come up. It's good that the realtor should be able to take care of it and talk to each other. Camaraderie was my military, my home inspection with the realtors and then as a realtor? Yes, very important.

Speaker 1 9:14
What is a tip that you would give somebody that is getting ready to put their house up on the market?

Speaker 2 9:23
Right. Good ones. I have a couple. Okay, first of all, I'm color blind. So I got a good wife that dresses me with my colors. That's a good tip for me. Anyway, but for tips selling your house, you want to be able to get it ready. I go in, I'll do the inspection, but I also talked about the general stuff that needs to be done. You want to clean the house up as much as you can. I mean sometimes there's people with kids and stuff like that there's going to be clutter but you want to clean it, declutter as much as possible. De-personalize it, you want to get a storage room or something that you can put stuff in because you have a lot of furniture, especially people that have lived there for 20 or 30 years, their garage is so full that it's a hoarder looking house or something like that. But you want to you want to try and declutter as much as possible, if you're not taking the stuff with you, give it to charity, sell it, whatever you want to do as soon as possible, because you want to get that house looking as clean as possible. I mentioned de-personalizing it; people want to walk into a house, they want to see that the house is what they're looking for. If they see the furniture, or family pictures, they're not seeing that house as theirs, they're seeing it as yours. So make it depersonalized and clean, you want it to be decluttered. And then landscaping, of course, anything on the outside, you want it to be inviting. So it's very important to have it inviting. And I think you mentioned from the beginning, use professionals. I have two professional photographers I use all the time. I don't take those pictures, because you could tell when there's a picture taken by a cell phone or somebody taking it from a professional photographer. That really makes a big difference. When selling the house, the house will sell itself, but you got to get them there and that's the key to real estate. You got to get the people in and let the house do the rest of it. Because if the house isn't going to fit that family, they're not buying it. So the key is get them to the house and get them inside and let the house do all the selling of it.

Speaker 1 11:37
So let the house do the work for you.

Speaker 2 11:40
I do a lot of advertising. I'm in magazines, I do everything. Like I said New York, New Jersey and Miami I'm in their papers, postcards, all kinds of stuff that would sell a house. But like you said, today's market is very hot. Usually we'll do an open house and sell it or get it under a contract in that same day, the way this market is, as long as the house is right. If you see houses on the market for 50 or 60 days today, somebody's not doing the right job, whether it's the seller not wanting to agree with the realtor or the realtor not doing the right stuff.

Speaker 1 12:16
Now let's flip the script. What advice would you give the buyer?

Speaker 2 12:22
Hire me first.

Speaker 1 12:24
That's the first thing I'd say.

Speaker 2 12:27
Because I am going to look after you. I take people in I get to know them. That's what I want to do. I always like to get to know them. I know what COVID right now, people are shy, but I like to bring the buyer around in my car. Even if we're have to wear two masks nowadays, but you get to know the person. You want to find out what they're really looking for. If they got kids or animals, they need a fenced in yard. Or if they're working in Palm Beach, they want to know how far they can go north before it affects them. They don't want to be in traffic or how long away from work it's going to be. So getting to know the person is a big thing. Get to know the whole family and get their needs down pack.

Speaker 1 13:04
So build a relationship with your realtor, so that they can find you the house that you're looking for. That's awesome. John, I appreciate you coming in today. Thanks for all your hard work and your advice. Thank you for your service.

Speaker 2 13:17
Thank you, I really appreciate it. This is a great show. I love it.

Speaker 1 13:19
Awesome. If you are looking to buy or sell, make sure that you reach out to John and the folks at McCurdy. They are going to take good care of you and make sure that you get the house that you deserve. We'll be back. Thanks!