it happens to be seven years to the day that I became a homeowner. I had more people than not saying, what the hell is she thinking?" It is now worth 83% more than what I had bought it for.

Was there something pushing you towards this from the rental standpoint? Were you just sick of renting?

It drives me absolutely nuts people being like, "well, this isn't like the right time to do it." Bitch, there is no right time.

Do you think that your experience buying a house influenced your wanting to get licensed and help other people?

Things are different now and people need to stop comparing back to what things were pre-COVID.

The stability really is a thing.

I sell houses better than I take care of my own. I give better guidance to other people to take care of theirs

Boop. Alright, so what are we talking about today?

Are we starting with my home

Your home iversary.

Because the day this comes out will be seven years to the day that I bought my house.

pretty good.

Yeah, that's why I wanted to do it Are we in the episode?

episode? I don't know, are we in the we in the

Welcome back to Bloody Up. back. We're talking about my home it happens to be seven years to the day that I became a homeowner. we talked about doing my home buying experience and Seth's home selling experience at some point and we had something else planned and I said, wait, today's the day. shuffled some things around to not put this off for another year.

what made you want to buy a house?

Oh, I'm impulsive.

You're impulsive. Yes. nothing really, just other

Okay, so it all stemmed from, the year was 2016.

2016 Yes.

Yes, I had been renting since I was 19. my roommate at the time, you know, we had a conversation, decided that we weren't gonna like renew this lease and we might just take different directions and whatever. So I said, okay, no problem. No hard feelings. That was fine. but instead of finding somewhere else to rent, I said, all right, well, I'm gonna buy a house. now to set the scene too, I had just bought a car, it was the car I always wanted, because I was going to move to Delaware. I was looking for jobs in Delaware to move there, to buy a house. Can I

Can I ask another follow up?

up? Yes.

What's in Delaware and why would you move there?

I thought it was cheaper and my cousin lives there and my cousin is a real estate agent there.

No offense to anyone in Delaware, but I don't hear that very often where it's like, I really wanted to move to Delaware.

I was living in, Exton at the time in Chester County, and Delaware is not far from there. I grew up in Delco and Delaware is very accessible

for anyone listening, we are outside of the Philadelphia area. So we're no more than 45 minutes from the Delaware state line.

in that area or no more than 45 minutes from three different states. But I didn't get the job I was looking to get in Delaware. So I said, well, I'm not going to buy a house. I'm going to buy a car. So I got my Jeep. And then the next month I said,

your Jeep predates your house. Jeep You've had that Jeep longer than you've had your house. Yes. Got it. Okay. By a few months.

had your house.

to buy a house. But why did you think that was a mean, I know you're impulsive, but home buying is way

slow. No, no, no, but

No, no, no, but it's way too slow. It's not like you went ahead and bought Apple stock or you went and bought yourself a ATV. Like you didn't just go somewhere, pick it up and bring it home.

Well, it was November and our lease was up in February. So I said, all right, well, I'm going to buy a house, contacted my cousin, she's licensed in Delaware. She found an agent for me in Pennsylvania through REMAX, who is great. And I found the house by I guess January, I wasn't the best buyer. I wasn't the strongest file, but no, I just said, it just makes more sense to buy a house than to rent. why would I continue to give somebody else my money when I can give myself money? Now, this topic is not going to be a story of how I can relate to the people who are buying houses now. It was a different time in a different market, and I don't know if I'd be able to do the same thing that I did then right

How long was the house on the market before it was bought? 50 days?

More. 60. 50 days.

60 Something. 60 or so

I saw.

so 60 days on market for a house that would sell in 60 hours now.

Oh, for sure. I have a rancher. You have a rancher. That is a high commodity now. I'm not going to try to get haters here and say like all the things I was able to get at the time because it's not necessarily the case right now, but I also have really awesome sellers, which I hope they see this because they're so nice. I still talk to them too. Hi, Bo. It didn't make sense to keep renting and it only made sense to buy a house so, I can tell you that not many other people in my life thought the same that I did.

Ok, so you had exterior opinion telling you it was a dumb idea?

Had every exterior opinion telling me it was a dumb idea. I ended up getting like my friend's parents to at least like play along and were like giving me some opinions or so, but. every house I saw myself, I didn't have anybody helping me out, either emotionally, financially, nothing. I had more people than not saying, what the hell is she thinking? I even have family now who tells me, like, we didn't really know what you were doing there for a while.

Let me ask you this. Did you have like a bone to pick? Did you have a chip on your shoulder?

I always, I have the biggest chip shoulder.

Did you have this like fierce independence thing at the time you weren't a mother, but

know, to be though, bought my house that came a couple months. Like what, three months later?

Three months later, did you have like a trip on your shoulder being like, You know, what's people tell me I can't do it. So I'm gonna do it.

it. it was more like, okay, people are

I Know that's more. I know that's more or less your default position because I've been managing you for two years

I don't know if it like motivated me anymore or less, other than the fact it's like it didn't discourage me. 'cause I'm like, okay, cool. Well there's a lot of things that people told me that I couldn't do, and here I am.

so there was no like, catalystic event meaning, you had an epiphany where you said, this makes sense, this is what I'm gonna do, you were just like,

My roommate and I had that conversation and it was just, Okay, well then I'm going to buy a house.

Were you tired of renting?

Yeah.

I mean, if there wasn't a big motivator to buy, and it's funny, funny. Cause this is actually me turning into

you're trying to make a point.

no, no, no. It's like, this is an interview now. Now I'm like, I'm, now, as you know, I'm a very curious creature. So now I'm very

I'd so much rather answer questions than have to drone on about

no, no, yeah, no, no, no. And I, cause I, we've talked about this multiple times. In fact, I think the first time we ever met we talked about you. You had bought a house in 2017, but so if there wasn't something really motivating you to buy a house, so typically, and you know this because you're a real estate professional now is that it's some kind of pain point. You need a bigger house. you feel like you don't want to pay someone else's mortgage, or you want to start saving for your own house, or you want to get into a school district, or build wealth, You didn't have any of these things, but what about the back end? Was there something pushing you towards this from the rental standpoint? were you just sick of renting? Did you have a philosophical problem with the idea of

the next thing to do.

it's

And it's like with where, I mean, with the position I was in at that moment, it was like, okay, well. my original plan was to have my two friends come live with me we had actually talked about that and planned it out because we talked about renting together I said, I actually want to go buy a house, but like, obviously I couldn't buy it without being able to afford it myself and qualify for it myself. to have them live with me, rent with me, and for a little while they did. That's a different story. otherwise, it was just like, instead of having to go find more roommates, find another apartment to go to and then move again next year I hate moving. I don't know who enjoys moving and packing and unpacking

we talking about stability?

Oh my god, oof, don't tell, don't tell 26 year old Jen that, she'd be like, what's stability, what's that? a big part of this too, I was in retail for 13 years. Yeah, that was

was gonna be my next question just for anyone who hasn't heard the 17, 000 times you've mentioned that

And So when I was applying to different jobs and I was like, had a heavy focus in Delaware, the one I did end up getting was a store manager job in, like where I live now at the outlets. And it was, it was a great opportunity. So I was commuting. Like 40 minutes to work so I was like why not just live out there instead I mean I could get rentals. I didn't know the area at all I was used to living in Chester County and Delco. I had never lived in Montgomery County I didn't know the area and it just made sense. I'd had a big girl job, but I got my, my own store now. I need to be more local to it because you know, anybody's ever been. Yeah. I have to be there. And boy, was I like, I have to be there in a minute and I was there in five minutes. being able to find somewhere closer to work, which, comes back to the millennials. Number one reason for moving is to be closer to work. as far as renting closer to work or buying closer to work, it's just at the time I was like, it doesn't make sense to rent. I already know I'm going to be working here. I plan on staying. I don't plan on leaving.

rent and it's just, I already know I'm going to be working here, I plan on staying, but I plan on leaving, so. And that's why I like, that's why I like

that's why I wanted to have a topic of, my home buying experience not to relate dollars and cents, but more of the motivation behind it of like, it drives me absolutely nuts of people being like, well, this isn't like the right time to do it. Bitch, there is no right time. if I had just waited, so everybody's telling me, this is not really the best thing for you to be doing. You're doing it by yourself. Do you even have enough money to do it? Cause like. I didn't have a ton of money. I was saving what I could It wasn't a ton, but I was like, hey, this is what I have. Can you help me make it work? My agent said yeah got me with her lender who was great. Love him, too I'd be super happy to do a deal with him, too. Scott Tomlinson. What's up? no, I mean I had a really really great team around me who like Did support what I was doing and I had absolutely no idea what I was doing and they helped guide me there but if I listen to everybody who is talking to me otherwise and saying this is a terrible idea, like why would you do this? Why not wait? If I had waited a couple years, I would not have been able to do it. And the thing is, that's not just limited to a 2017 thing. I was just talking to another client of ours who bought her house that was 2022.

And we

And we just ran a comp on our house to see what the value of it is right now.

right now. What's a

Sorry,

Yeah. We, we, we actually had a conversation before we started recording about terminology. We need to not

as

put as much real estate terminology out into

And if we do, we need to get it correct. Yeah, we're putting

or put in the show notes or put some definitions somewhere.

we were running comparables. So we're just getting her the value of her house now, even though she just bought it in 2022. And she already has equity in it. It's already worth a

lot of

of equity. Yeah, like not a little bit more. And she said Oh my God. I'm so glad I bought when I did. I said you bought in 2022 a lot of people at that time would not have told you that that was the right time to be to buy. But two years later. You look back and you said, Oh my God, I'm so glad I did it when I did like there's always going to be the in two years, you're going to look back and say, I'm so glad I did it It drives me insane, like if you wait any longer, you're going to put yourself in like a worse position than just going for it now and trusting it's going to work out and it's going to work out when it's supposed to. If it doesn't right now, then it shouldn't. And it did all work out for me. I did get in with like, I think it was like four days to spare to get out of my apartment and into my house. That was chaotic.

you a question.

Go for it. I love questions.

Do you think that your experience buying a house influenced your wanting to get licensed and help other people? cause it sounds like you had a good team around you. I actually know, who your agent is and she's great. what were the things that you experienced in your transaction? I'm putting you on the spot here because I know you didn't prepare. Well, what were the things in your transaction that you didn't like that you feel like you fix for your clients and you do better for your clients?

There's only one thing. Because otherwise, she did so great. my agent did everything correctly. I was not the

I said, I was not the strongest buyer.

think they're one and the same to be

all, I think they're one and the same to be honest. I just mean in my experience. have gotten license and they said, I had such a terrible experience with my realtor. I knew that I could do better. And I saw what they got paid and I was like, okay, this could work,

Well, too. And like,

but you have the opposite problem. what is the thing that you do differently that you think you can, improve over your own

own now, this might be a personal preference thing, but I wish that she would have pushed. the limits a little bit further from what I was specifically asking for.

asking for. In terms of your search or the

location. Oh, oh, I trusted her on negotiation. I knew that I didn't know what I didn't know. And I was one, I was the perfect buyer in the sense I was like, do what you got to do. I was a pain in the ass buyer in the sense of like, I want to go here and I want to go here. I'm going to put an offer in on that. Just kidding. You went through all that work and talking to the agent. Pull it. I want one on that I wasn't the biggest payday, she had paid a referral to my cousin too, so bless her heart, she was wonderful with me, the only thing that like I'd probably say that, I would have done differently is I didn't know the area I was moving to at all. I had no idea what Collegeville was, I had no idea what Gilbertsville, like I didn't know any of like the surrounding areas that could have been more options that I wasn't exploring

so probably what happened is you said, Hey, I want to look for houses in Pottstown and that's kind of where you were relegated

were relegated on it, I would, I would say like, Oh, I wonder if I had looked like it I didn't know

I would, I would

I do.

oh, I wonder if I looked like it just, I didn't know 422. I do. Yeah, that's true. you're just more estranged up to, up the highway there. So, like where I've always, since the day you got licensed, and we were talking about general areas, like where you live is, I love that area. And I love it for investment

And that's what I'm going to give her credit to because I didn't know the area, so I didn't know what great of an area that I live in is. she showed me different areas that like she in her own head may have been like, Oh, no, but like you can't do that and she didn't and still let me go see them and I got to make that decision for myself. I didn't like that other specific borough.

Final question. How much equity do you have in your home

So much. not equity versus like what I owe on it or different, but I mean, it is now worth 83 more than what I had bought it for.

had bought it for. It

in a great position.

a great position. Excellent condition.

Excellent condition.

been able to do it. And it's like, that's

We're talking I wouldn't have been able to do it. things are different now and people need to stop comparing back to what things were pre-COVID and like, I get it's a lot harder now and it jumped significantly All to say, you don't know what the future is going to hold. You don't know what's going to happen in a couple of years. if you can manage to find a way to make it happen now. If you can't do it, that's a different conversation. I didn't know if I could or couldn't at the time. I went to a source that I trusted who found me trusted sources and they told me I can and here's how. They made it happen. I have never missed a mortgage payment. I have. Struggled financially, but I was never at the expense of my home. then having a child and doing that by myself. And that was a whole nother

of a pandemic. Yeah, sure. But it would have been so

but it would have been so much worse if I didn't have my house. I would have been renting with a baby all alone.

and also waiting for a call where he, the landlord could say, Hey, I'm going to sell the place. So, and I deal with probably four or five of those a year where they're first time home buyers or they're people who are renting and they're like, I got the call and they're giving me 16 to 90 days to get out.

so I had a lot of other very stressful things happen following buying my house, but thank God I had my house and I had gotten it when I did and I did make that impulsive decision and just

I had my house and I had done, I the stability really is a thing. important decision and just went for it. on in your life That's a big motivator It's something that a lot of renters think through, especially when the market has come up so fast, there's a lot of landlords who are like, Oh, wow, wow, I can sell it for this. I'm going to sell it. usually in a lease and lease in the state of Pennsylvania, it's 60 days. It's only notice you need to give a tenant, but people will pay for that stability because then they know that they can't be displaced. So they can focus on other things like building a life, building a family,

and not to mention I did it between a breakup. So I got the house on my own, which now that I never had to worry about having somebody else on it and then ever having to worry about like, can I sell it without them? Whatever. I wouldn't have picked like the best timing, but it ended up being the best timing because I trusted the process, not my own, like what. Control I have over it. It all fell into place the way it was supposed to that. I would have never been able to plan I I've frequently said when I get frustrated with things that happen as a homeowner in your house is oh my god Who let me buy a house because what the hell am I doing? I don't know how to fix this. I learned how to caulk my shower the second day I call this homeowner's law you buy a house and then something goes wrong within the first couple days I, this is just a funny story, I love thunderstorms, they are the most calming things to me, I love watching them, ugh, they're the best. And I'm at work, and I'm at the outs, and I was like, oh, look at this beautiful storm, I love it, I wish I was enjoying it at home, but it's slow, and oh, this is so nice. I get home, my front door, my screen door, was flung flung open completely, the little pulley thingy. snapped off and ripped out and shredded the wood frame and I was like, it's been two days. I've lived here for two days. It's still broken. It's been seven years. But, I always say like, who let me buy a house? Like I sell houses better than I take care of my own. I give better guidance to other people to take care of theirs if you think like, I don't know anything about having it. You do learn as you go.

and also this generation and these days, you have YouTube. And that is a huge bonus, too, because if you needed to know how to reinstall a storm door, there's about 17, 000 videos there that will tell you how to do it.

Well, I'll tell you what. So, in my 20s, Jen was an independent woman who don't need no man and I can do everything myself. And I

myself. Even YouTube? You'd even reject YouTube?

Oh, I was YouTube queen. I'll figure out how to do it. I used that thing like a friggin machine. Guess what? I'm in my 30s now. I can, but I don't want to. Uh, however.

I'm in my 40s. I am a very very proficient check writer. I do not fix hardly anything

Well, guess what? Yeah. Well, you should have, you would've gotten a kick out of me trying to replace my toilet seat last night. Okay. I didn't.

How? How could you, how can't you replace a toilet seat? It's the easiest thing

Well, I went on YouTube to find out what happens when the, uh, another, uh, rusted onto it. I may have also accidentally used pliers, which then made the washers even tighter, and now I really can't get it off. I have a, I don't have a sock and wrench. I have a wrench wrench

Uncle, Uncle Jeff, Uncle Jeff at Amazon can ship a whole socket set for a, for

I think we just got done understanding that I'm an impulsive person and if I have an idea in my head and something I want to do, I need to do it now, not when Uncle Jeff can get it to me. It's okay, my neighbor's coming tomorrow to help me. he just also had the same very angry frustrations, but what I'm trying to say again is, you do figure it out as you go. Things happen and I understand like there's a more comfort level of like when you're renting. is not your problem. That's, that's a landlord's

It is.

Then you gotta trust that you have a landlord who

gotta wait for a handyman. You gotta wait for the landlord to get off his ass and send somebody. And usually the handyman is, going a mile a minute. they're not incentivized to fix it right.

but you know, at the cost of $0,

But at the cost of zero dollars, but the inconvenience, like if something doesn't work or an appliance fails or something like that,

Or the entire complex decides to take the windows out with less than 24 hours notice and then you don't have windows all day and then you get fleas in your apartment because they kept the

so there, there's our final, argument to definitely buy a house. fleas through windows.

I hope that what everybody gets from this though is that there is no right time and it does pay off this is not limited to when I purchased because there's still people who are saying now, Oh, I bought it the perfect time because like I said before, our other client, she bought when rates had just jumped up to 5 percent when they were too. And people thought she was. Crazy forget it buying right now. Like, oh my God, but rates just went up so much. Yeah. Well, guess what? Then they went up to like seven and eight.

what did she do? She listened to her realtor.

And guess what? She was an independent woman who didn't need no man either. And she made it happen.

we're gonna interview her. she's a, SLG super fan. Yeah.

so hope that at least somebody got something from

if anybody out there is listening to this and they're renting and they're worried about jumping in or if they have younger brothers or sisters or they have kids that are, reluctant about home ownership, We just got done talking about how it's not always the right time to buy, but It is more so the right time than it is not if you surround yourself with the right people they're not gonna lead you down the wrong path the idea that realtors are just selling hot It's just too slow of a process And, uh, get yourself a good realtor. If you're in the Philadelphia area, call us. We can help you out. And, um

And if you just want to pick my brain more about what I was thinking by

by just Yeah, oh, listen, we could go through my, uh, one of these episodes, we could go through my home buying experience. how somebody tried to talk me into buying a house in 2006. And, I had some very good

Back when my generation of people were in

tell me, hell no, you're not buying anything. So, okay, guys. We'll see you on the next one.

the next one. Bye!