KGCI: Real Estate on Air - Go-To Agent for Doctors Closing 56 Homes in 2023 with Susan Santoro

Episode Date: July 18, 2024

Real estate rock stars, welcome back. Here's what you can expect to learn in today's show. How to become your local hospitals go-to agent for doctors. How to systematically keep in touch with clients without using a CRM or technology. How to craft an offer that stands out in a low inventory market. And how to navigate conversations with your clients considering backing out. Today's guest is Susan Santoro, and she runs the Connecticut shoreline and has been doing so for 39 years. She's closed thousands of transactions and did 56 as a solo agent just last year in

2003, which for most was a slow year. She did this by collaborating with the Yale Hospital as a part of her marketing strategy and much more. Guys, it's funny. Today's guest is old school badass, but the next show that's coming up is actually the exact opposite. She's a total Gen Zier, and their personalities are completely opposite as well as their strategies. And I recorded today's show, Susan Santoro, back to back with the Gen Zer coming up next week. And just the contrast is hilarious. So make sure you don't miss next week's show. Go ahead and follow and turn on notifications for this podcast. And get ready at real estate rock stars. Welcome. Susan. Okay, doing my stocking on you with beforehand. I have found that you are

partnered with a local hospital as a way to, I believe, a part of your marketing strategy. And I know there's a bunch of agents out there getting into the industry who have had these ideas. I'm going to partner with this local business or this local opportunity. And could you share what that partnership looks like and how it came to be? Sure. So it kind of came to be by accident. I had one of my, a doctor who had contacted me, had given my name from somebody who I had sold to before. They were moving here coming from Harvard to Yale, which is a very common stepping stone.

He was coming here to be a chief of a very big department. And he said, you know, we might not buy for a year and a half because, you know, it takes a lot of time to, you know, prospect an interview at Yale. So it's fine. Every time they came to town, I would take them out, show them, show them things. Got to really know them what they wanted. When the perfect house came on the market, I called him. He was actually in Japan. His wife was in Nantucket.

We didn't have FaceTime then. So, you know, describing exactly what it was. we put in an offer right then and there. And he said to me, I promise you if you stick with us, I'm going to be bringing in at least 30 doctors into the department. So that's kind of how it started. And he has, I've moved 32 now into his department. His, because he's a big chief, other chiefs contacted him, you know, hey, we're building up our department, you know, any tips for us. And he would always share my name. So there are now four departments at Yale who, I can't say exclusively call me because they don't have to, but I make it easy.

I'm available 24-7. I have a team of agents. There's three other agents on my team that can take somebody out if they're moving here, want to get to see what real estate is going to cost them. So it was totally by accident, and then one of them named me realtor to the docks, and that became my hashtag. So I would say that, you know, it's, you can certainly go into a HR departments at, you know, big corporations, you don't have a big hospital around you,

go into HR departments and corporations and see how you can help them in the relocation process. You're not going to get paid every time you take someone out and you have to understand that. You put a lot of time and energy into it, but a year from now, if they move here and they take the job, they're going to use you. And then they're going to give your name to 10 other people. So that's kind of how it starts. Okay, perfect. For those listening, it's like step one, figure out what corporation organization has a lot of people coming and going. And then the subset of step one is like go to that HR department or figure out like who's a good gatekeeper.

Who's the person that everyone knows, that everyone respects, maybe has a influence over the organization and then figure out how you can help them and do an amazing job. And you mentioned essentially maintaining the relationship is what. brought you. So before I know, like you are the relationship like queen. So I want to talk about that in a second, but just any other advice for getting in with the, I guess the doctor. So for you, it's it's an informal partnership. Correct. And have you done anything special to cater to that clientele, the doctors? No, except that they know I don't, I mean, the good part is that I don't ever require a lot of sleep. So if I get four hours of sleep at night, I'm fine.

They know they can contact me at any hour. And I always tell them when I start with them. You know, I have a lot of surgeons. So they get out of surgery at two in the morning. They see a house that I, you know, sent them and they're excited about it. And they'll text me. And I always tell them, like, if I'm sleeping, I'm not going to hear my phone. It's sitting next to me, but it's on buzz.

It's not, I'm not going to hear it. So, but I will get back to them the second I do see it. So sometimes it is at two in the morning and I shock them and they apologize. Did I wake you? And other times it's, you know, the next morning, it's whatever, a text and email. I am constantly, if I don't get back to you in 15 minutes, somehow, some way, then I feel like I'm not doing my job. Now, with that said, I don't take my phone on a listing appointment, but I, you know, I'm not in a listing appointment more than,

you know, an hour. So I will always get back to someone and they know that and that's really important with their crazy busy schedules. They work like us, seven days, seven nights. So again, it's just building that relationship by building that trust that they can reach me at any time. And it's not just for real estate. They will call me for years, asking for recommendations of restaurants, car dealerships, you know, oh, we need to write a will, you know, an attorney. It's just a constant. Yeah.

And I found that if you are able to be that connector piece, you know, where you don't have to be the expert in all of these things. Like you don't know about the car dealership or like the attorney specific. But as long as you know someone and you're able to connect them, they will consistently think of, oh, Susan is the person that I should ask. Susan is the human of the town, the city. Yes, exactly. And I, you know, back to that, like how do you get into a company? The other thing is that you could go crazy, and it's fun going into a rabbit hole, figuring out

through LinkedIn, through, you know, Google, who is, you know, the head of a certain department, Find something in common with one of those people and then, you know, become their friend. And I think that, you know, my key to 39 years in this, you know, crazy business that just consumes you is that my clients are my friends. And they truly are. And I will treat them as I do a friend. I'm not going to be going, you know, on vacation with them. But I've been invited to, you know, three-year-old birthday parties and bar mitzvahs and weddings and, you know, christening's and the whole bit.

But they, you want to make them feel like they are your friend and they're important to you as your friends are. And you're not just a client. It's not just all about, oh, I'm going to make the money and I'm never going to hear from you again. My business is 100% referrals from past clients at this point. So how do we do that? So if it's like especially I feel like when you're newer and you're starting out and you don't have a lot of money and you are just dying for that next commission check or you know you're going to have to go back and get that job. that took you years to, you know, build up the guts to finally leave. And so there's a sense of urgency and like almost desperate.

So do you have any advice, you know, about how to be authentic and friendly and still make sure that you are doing everything possible to hit your financial goals as well? That's a hard one. I think just, you know, I'll say it over and over again, your sphere of influence. Everybody knows somebody. And I think joining a team is just such an important thing for a young agent. I didn't have that. I did floor time in my office almost seven days a week in the beginning.

And I would just answer every single call and to run with whoever I can. A lot of offices don't have floor time anymore. So you have to now turn to your sphere of influence. By joining a team, you can use their numbers. So that's the benefit. you know, again, every team runs different. How I run my team is I want people on my team to be able to build up their business as well, you know, as building up our team numbers. But at the end of the year, you know, there were the three, there was three of us on the team this past year. You know, we had 118 sales and 62 million in closings. You can use those numbers. And though, you know, the, you know, me being the lead, obviously. had the bigger number, nobody has to know that. And so a young agent that's on a team say, you know, well, you know, our team did, you know,

110 million this year. So I think you have to just show someone, you know, who you know what you know, but use your sphere of influence. If you have kids in nursery school, I'm big into branding. I just joined Sotheby's three years ago and everything turned blue in my life because they're navy blue is their color. even with my team, the Susan Santoro team, I give everybody jackets, I give everybody hats. I get, you know, wear it all the time. My husband wears a baseball cap, a Sotheby's baseball

cap on the tennis court, and he's constantly asked about a listing. And he's like, oh, no, no, no, here, call my wife. So it works. So, you know, just get out there, immerse yourself in whatever company you join. Try to get on a team if you can because it's super, super beneficial if your team is going to allow you to have your own career as well. There are some teams who just take team, you know, leads take all the sales under their name, zero benefit to a team agent. So I think it's like I love what you say about branding because like I'm so obnoxiously about that like in the back of everyone guys, if you're not watching on YouTube, if you watch on YouTube, you know I have my neon five pillars nation sign.

I also like drink on the podcast out of my five pillars nation water bottle. So all about it with you. I'm going to get that tattoo later this year. Just kidding. That was such a joke. I won't tell your mom. Hopefully you should not listen. Yeah, don't tell my mom.

I'm going to listen. Okay, yes. So to bring it back a little bit to the relationships piece of it, you know, being someone's friend and making sure that authentic relationship is communicated through, do you use a CRM? Are you systematic with your follow-up or are you much, there's some agents who are just like, oh, I just thought of them. So I, you know, on a whim, what is your process for maintaining those relationships? So I don't use a CRM.

And I'm going to use the excuse over and over again because I'm old. And it just, you know, isn't my thing. Even hooking up a microphone to do this podcast with you is, you know, was difficult for me. Dude, you nailed it. You're right. Oh, gosh. That was, it was not easy. But, um, but, you know, I am.

I'm in my 60s. So it's, I, you know, that technology is not anything that I grew up with or have a desire or time to even learn. So I actually have a box of index cards and it's alphabetized in the back by their name, but it's also by month that they closed. So I will go through that box. A lot of times in the winter especially, I will go through that box and I will start in January. I'll look up names. I'll reach out to them, hey, you know, drove by your house today, you know, Love the landscape. We love the color you painted the front door. You know, I'll go back and I'll look what color the front door was when they bought the house.

It's find some reason to call them, contact them, email them, text them. It puts their name back in front of their face again. Some of them, you know, a lot of like my young doctors who I just adore, I think I have this like hidden desire to be a doctor. I'm very fascinated by medicine. I will, you know, call like, hey, let's have dinner. You know, let's meet for a drink. Let's go for lunch. Let's go for coffee. So it does become authentic because you do really care about them. And it's not just that once a year sending them, you know, a holiday card. I don't do Christmas cards or Hanukkah cards.

I do Thanksgiving cards. I want to try to stand out in their mailbox and not, you know, waste money or time doing, you know, around Christmas when everybody's doing it. But you got to call them during the year. You have to check in with them and they have to hear either your voice or a text or something. to say, you know, you're thinking about them. So it's easy to become authentic. But, you know, I also tell people like, be you know, not everybody. I don't cold call. I'm not comfortable cold calling. It's not my thing. If you're you, you take something and you own it, you're going to

be able to do it with ease. And I love it. This is a this is a schmoozing business. And the more you schmooze, the more repeat and business you're going to get and the more referrals you're going to get. Otherwise, you're going to be working so hard every single day, every single year looking for new business. People that, you know, buy these leads. Great. If you want to buy them, terrific. But you've got to keep in touch with those people if you sell a mouse. Don't just walk away.

Susan, you do have a CRM just because it's not. It's in an index box. That is, well, I mean, that's so much more than most people have, you know, and that's the thing, too. It's like, you have to find what works for you. For me, I had an Excel spreadsheet for honestly the first couple years of me being in the industry. And I would hear all the time people to get a real CRM, which is true. I have one now and it actually has changed my life. But that's not the point.

It's what it will work if you work it. And a box of index cards with your clients, organize it in a way that you have a systematic process to follow up. You're doing the CRM. It's happening. Yeah, I guess so. I guess so. It's just a different way. It's a different way.

The dinosaurs, yeah. What, and so, okay, so with that, you are, you are systematically touching every person, every past client that you've had to maintain those relationships. You also do Thanksgiving cards. What else are you doing? And you're doing the branding, of course. What else do you have going on to, to increase your brand awareness or touch points with your clients, etc.? So I have a closing checklist.

I have a closing checklist and it's literally just, you know, it's either if I'm doing it or I have an assistant, you know, who does it. It consists of, you know, make sure we have their emails and we enter them onto our newsletter, you know, email list. So we do send out newsletters. We send out, you know, if there's a great, you know, new listing or, you know, any listing, right, that is in their area. We'll try to break that down and send that to them. We put them on a list for anniversary cards. As I said to you, my index cards are broken up through the month. So every month I go through them.

I write a little handwritten note, hey, I can't believe it's been eight years that you're in this business. I mean, that you're in your house. Congratulations on your home anniversary. So that's on there. A reminder to post on LinkedIn, all social media platforms, all of that stuff will continue just to keep in touch with them. And look, I understand the.

benefits of CRMs, you know, ones, I don't know what you will have, but like ones that send out, you know, letters or emails, you know, on a regular basis to people. Again, to me, that's just not, it's not my way of being authentic. And, um, but you again, just do what you're comfortable with, but keep in touch, relationship relationship. It's just the one word that I will say over and over again in real estate. In listeners, if you want a copy of Susan's post-closing, checklist, checklist for closings. You can go to real estate rockstars network.com and go over to

the toolbox and get your free copy of that for download. Thanks for providing that, Susan. Absolutely. I'm curious what you do for closing gifts because in, and isn't Sotheby's like a luxury, you know, do you do luxurious things for your closing gifts? So that's a, that's a great, that's a great question. As I said, we, I was with a mom and pop, you know, small company for 31 years, joined Sotheby's three years ago. My, two, you know, to the agents on my team were both, you know, concerned about, you know, price point and, you know, oh, Sotheby's only handles, you know, million dollar plus listings. And what I told them is you have to get this into your head.

Luxury is not a price point, but it's a service. Just do the best you're going to do for your clients. It has nothing to do with price point. Any sign can be in front of anybody's house from ABC real estate to Sotheby's. It doesn't matter about the sign. It's the person behind it. And it's the service that they're offering. So, you know, when people sometimes call me and say, no, I have a $400,000 house, I don't know if it's really Sotheby's material. Will you still work with me? Again, over and over again, it's not a price point. It's a way of service. So that's really important. And it does, Lugly, Sotheby's does have, you know, their auction house. they do have the most expensive homes in the world for sale.

You know, the $20, $30 million, you know, homes of the famous people. I'm in New Haven, Connecticut. We don't have that here. So it's just a way of service. Do you, what do you guys do for, and I love that clarification. Thank you. You're welcome. What do you do for closing gifts?

I think it depends on the person. You know, we really get to know them, right? if they have dogs and kids and sometimes I have a wonderful French baker who makes me custom cookies. She makes my business card. She gets, I send her a picture of the house. She makes a cookie of the house with the color. She makes a key with the address. And then we have like little shirts or beach balls depending on where they're buying the house. We put each kid's name on a cookie. We put the dog's name on a cookie and that's a really fun gift. And, they can enjoy them, you know, over and over again.

Depending on the person, um, I just sold a beautiful house down by the water. I gave her a gorgeous hand-blown glass seashell dish. You know, I just knew that she collected glass. So when I get to know something about somebody as I'm working with them, I might be out showing them a house and you know, you know, oh, they're always in the color red or whatever and I'll always ask that, you know, is there significance to that? I go right to my contact when I leave them in my phone and And I write down this person likes this or this person. I write down all their kids' names, their dog's name, everything goes into my contacts.

So the gift becomes sort of, you know, something that they're going to enjoy. If they're moving here from out of state and they know no one or, you know, nothing around here, sometimes I'll give them gift certificates to a few local restaurants. So they get to know them. So I don't have a closing gift. I have, you know, different ones. Here's a quick commercial break from our sponsor, Ryan Paneda. If you are trying to grow your real estate investing business, then you need to join us at wealthy investor.

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simple. If you're trying to grow your business and wholesale more homes or flip more homes or buy more rental properties, that you need to go to wealthy investor.com and book a free call with our team. It's super simple. We'll go on a strategy call with you and figure out how we can help you grow according to your needs. So all you got to do is go to wealthy investor.com, book the free call with the team, and we'll see you there. Now back to the show. Yeah, hyper personal. And it fits, it fits your brand, the relationship. Right. Exactly. It goes back. Yep. I like that. I'm going to have a new hashtag realtor to the docs and relationship master. I'm going to write that. That's right. Okay. And you mentioned before you're like, you know, luxury is not a price point,

but a service. And I'm curious about. about what you think of, like, what is the service that you provide? Hypothetically, if you're talking to someone and they're deciding between, you know, multiple people. I don't care whether we do buyer or seller scenario, but like, how do you articulate your service? I think it's really just giving, showing them that you're going to give them the time. I had three new buyers sign on with me yesterday, which is unusual that I would have three in one day. One of them is coming from just Googling, you know, top realtors in the area. She told me she went on and read every single Google review and

realize that I do a lot of first-time buyers and she's finding that the agent that she worked with a year ago, she, you know, did not represent, you know, first-time buyers, couldn't guide them in, you know, mortgage people that can hold their hand through this or attorneys that will hold their hand. Again, you got to hook up personalities and make sure that, you know, know everyone's going to get along with that but the service is just you know again just time i think just making sure that they know that you are willing to put in the time to get them where they want to get another buyer that called me yesterday called me she's been in a rent she put in five offers last spring we have i don't you know where you are i don't know your your um local market

but we have a serious lack of inventory that actually my business is down 12 million this year alone, just me personally from lack of inventory. A lot of my doctors wound up going into rentals. So hopefully they'll all get a house this year. But this woman called me because she put in five offers, three of them were on my listings and realized her agent really didn't know the area. And I find that to be a big mistake with agents. Agents get greedy and they're just going to take someone and think that they can go all over the place with them. To me, if I can't tell you where to get pizza, where to get your hair cut, you know, where to go grocery shopping. I'm not doing my job. So you want to sell yourself on that the local expert, but keep in mind that like where I am,

New Haven County is big. It stretches, you know, all the way out to the shoreline and we go as far north as, you know, Wallingford, as far south as Fairfield. I know all of those towns, but beyond that, if you tell me you want to buy in a town beyond that, I'm going to refer it to another expert in that area. So I think that that's another key that people really appreciate is just you're willing to put in the time and make sure they get what they want to get. Do you have any like with those buyers that you took on yesterday? What does take on mean? It's like do you have like do a buyer's presentation sit down with that or are you just like, what are you looking for and then kind of take it from there? What's your process?

So they all three happen to be physician so none of them have time to sit down with me. So it was, I have again, I have a sheet, which I can certainly I'll remind myself to send that to you also. Oh yeah. All the tools. Which is just, you know, a taken sheet, right? I just sort of give me, it's a wish list, you know, of exactly what you're looking for. And when I'm talking to them, I'll fill that in, you know, and, you know, do they have kids? They might, they might come out and say to me, I want to be in this school district.

You know, they've done their research. They've gone on, you know, great schools.org. So I think that, you know, it's important to, again, zoom in. Then we talk about making sure they get pre-approved. Then I set them up on an auto search so that they'll get, they don't have to, I said to divorce yourself from the Z word because you do not, you shouldn't be doing the work. This is my job.

But the reason I set them up on an auto search is, I don't want to miss anything. You know, I've got a lot of buyers I'm working with. I don't want to miss that one house. So they will get it sent directly and automatically the minute it hits the MLS and then call me when it looks interesting. Sometimes I just have to FaceTime them from there. Sometimes I'm just bringing one spouse and with their hours. But yesterday with the three that called, yes, buyer brokers are very important.

I'm not going to say they're not. I don't always sign them. Don't push someone into it. And one of this, one of the girls who called me yesterday was pushed into it. And the agent right away was like, we have to sign a buyer broker and I get paid 3%. So if they're offering out less, I'm going to bill you for the difference. And she's a first-time buyer. So I never even, we never even talked about a buyer broker at this point.

Let's get to know each other. I might not want to work with her. So I set them up on a watch list. Let's meet, you know, we'll meet a couple of times, you know, show them houses. And then we'll sign a buyer broker. And then we'll talk about that. But, you know, and again, everyone does business different and with, you know, this, you know, lawsuit, you know, that was going on in our industry.

I'm not going to talk about it. But, you know, it's up to you whether you want to build someone the difference of, you know, of what you think that you should get paid or whether you're willing to just accept it. So and I think it's really a circumstantial thing. Some young buyers coming out of. med school, they don't have the extra money to pay you. So I think you have to decide, you know, who that person is. But I did wind up signing one of them on as a buyer broker, um, because they called me and said, we want buyer representation. What do we have to do?

So we wound up signing on a buyer broker. So after you've shown people homes, a couple homes, few homes, and maybe you're in a house that they're like, we really like this one. And they're like strongly considering whether or not this is it for them and why. to move forward and they're kind of like debating it there on the spot with you. What are some of the considerations that you help talk them through in that scenario? We're like, we think we like it, but we're not sure. And then what how do you like talk them through that?

So the first thing I do is I always tell people and it's the truth, houses talk to people. You know, just like when you put on a shirt or a dress in the morning, you know if you look horrible in it, you're going to take it right off. And if you feel great in it, you're going to keep it on for the day. And it's the same with a house. Can you see yourself cooking in this kitchen? Can you see your kids, you know, in the yard? Does this fit your needs? Someone just told me they put in an offer on a house on a certain street and they lost it and they were very upset. They lost it. And I said, you know, you have an eight month old. You know, where is she going

to ride her bike on that street? And they said, oh, why? Is it a busy street? I said, it like, look outside. It's a double yellow line. It's a main road. They had, they said, oh, our agent never told us that and she was FaceTiming them. So it's important, you know, if they got here and realized they bought on a main road, they would have a problem with that. So I said to look, everything happens for a reason that you didn't get that house. But I think, you know, a house definitely talks to somebody. And then once they, you know, feel like, oh, it's their house, you know, obviously fall in love is great. But when you have lack of inventory, you're going to be one of, you know, 8, 10, 20 offers. So,

So it's all then we start talking about how to craft our offer to try to stand out. And it's not always about the money. And people have to understand that. You can come up with a way of saying, you know, as part of your, you know, this inspection for informational purposes only is gone by the wayside because it means nothing anymore. But like recently I just, I got someone a house by saying we want to have their first-time buyers. want to have a inspection just to get to know the house, we won't ask for anything, one, any individual item under $5,000.

So that's sort of everything, right? I mean, basically, if the roof is bad, we're going to probably ask to negotiate it. But you're sending them a message that we're not going to nickel and dime. This is going to be a smooth transaction. And it worked because this was an older couple. They didn't have the years of how old their house was. So it worked. So every situation is different.

But you have to know how to write an offer and make it work. Can we get let's stick deeper into that for the so it's not always about the money. And that's a great with the inspection criteria. We're not going to nickel and dime you. What other things would you recommend that you've seen at work? Get pre-approved. Try to find a bank that will completely pre-approve you. Meaning you're 100% approved.

All that they have to do is just. order the appraisal. So now you can go in and make an offer on a house without a mortgage contingency. So, you know, obviously it's going to be your risk. Unfortunately in the business, you know, that we're in for the last four years, it is your risk. The house may not appraise and you have to explain to them they might have to come up with that the difference in that money. And if they don't have it, well, then, you know, you have to have a mortgage contingency and hope for the best. But I think that, you know, it's, you know, again, there's, it really depends on the situation of how to get someone to stand out.

You know, I'm not going to tell you that people don't write these love letters anymore because they do. And, you know, it's up to the seller if they want to read it. And sometimes it makes a difference. How about earnest money tips? I don't know if you guys do non-refundable deposits in North Carolina. there's this thing called a due diligence fee that's a non-refundable deposit or like considering how much over to offer all of those things so i'll pull up we don't have a non-refundable but i love that idea um really kind of you know it's the glue that holds the contract together oh my god it is so

it's like the most powerful thing you can do yeah you know i love that idea anyway well maybe it depends on the scenario you know not every not all the clients love it of course but if they really want the house, you know. Anyway, go on. I actually had a listing last year and we had 14 offers on it and I just remember it because it really stood out. And the agent who got the house, who happened to be on my team, so it was bound up being a dual agent. But what she did is something like that. She wrote that if, you know, they're going to have an inspection for informational purposes only, but if they decide after the inspection, they don't want to move forward.

they're going to you could five thousand dollars is goes directly to the seller. It was like a home run to these sellers. You know, they figured what could come up that was going to be more than five thousand dollars. So if these people backed out because they just didn't feel it when they were in the house, there's five thousand dollars for them to do whatever they want. So that's what won that offer. So again, it was a situational, you know, thing, but it worked. So it's not a tactic often used, but it's another tool that is,

is a really good idea to try to do. We go directly to contract here. We don't go to Binder in New Haven County. Fairfoot County goes to Binder. New Haven County, we go directly to contract. I always tell them that, let's say they're putting down 10% of the purchase price. And a lot of my doctors do 100% financing because there's doctor loans, which is fine because sometimes when you explain what a physician loan is,

you know the people aren't going to get turned down for that loan. But if they're doing 10% down total, I will tell them to put it down upon acceptance. It just looks better in the eyes of the seller. The seller imagines that if the deal goes south, they're going to automatically collect that 10% when that's not accurate. Legally, they still have to go to court and fight over it, but it just makes them look strong. When I'm representing a seller, I demand a big deposit up front because as I just said, to you, it's the glue that holds the contract together. A week before closing, another house comes in the market. That buyer loves even more than the one they're in contract

for your listing. They're not going to walk away from $20,000 on the table. They might walk away if they're putting down $3,000 and $5,000. And I get multiple offers on my listings that I look at. Some of these agents are writing down $1,000 upon acceptance. What's anyone doing with $1,000? we're not taking costs off the market for $1,000. So up these deposits on your contracts. Okay, the offer got accepted. You know, you're under contract. The home inspection came back and, you know,

obviously you can probably see most of the roof was older, the age back, but let's just pretend, hypothetically. We're surprised that both, you know, the roof and the age back are older. Maybe they have like three years left of life on them. And now you're working with your buyers and you're saying the buyers are the buyers are considering backing out. And what are the considerations, like pros and cons? Or what is that conversation that you have with them look like?

So sometimes I will advise them to let's bring in an expert. I have over the years, obviously, have a lot of contacts with plumbers, electricians, HVAC people, roofers, et cetera. I'll bring in an expert and give them an estimate. It might not be as bad as they think. And a lot of buyers walk into any house and they think that anything that needs to be done is $10,000. I don't know if you experienced the same thing. It's like, you know, they walk in and say, oh, man, whole house needs to be painted.

There's 10 grand. You know, I'll have to change this lighting. There's 10 grand. And a lot of times something is not as expensive as you think and it doesn't need it right now. And if you really do love this house and you've looked at a lot of houses, every house is going to have something. If you love 90% of everything else, you love 90% of everything else, you really. in this house and it's just the roof, okay, then you know, you put some money aside and you put a new roof on. You, depending on what it is, if it's an H-back, sometimes I will have them get a home warranty,

a one-year home warranty. Well, sometimes we'll go back. If we say, let's say we go in with, you know, informational purposes only or we're not going to ask for anything, you know, under 5,000. We'll go back and say, look, we promise we're not going to ask for anything. However, you should know that your furnace is, you know, it's dying and it's probably not going to last, you know, through even this winter. They might come back and say, you know, we'll ask, you know, are you willing to contribute? Here's, here's an estimate for $10,000 for a new furnace. Are you willing to contribute 5,000? And, you know, we go from there and we try to open up negotiations. But I think you have to first determine if they still are in love with this house as they were when they put in the offer and

remind them about all the other things that we saw and what was wrong with each one. And this house is perfect. It's the right location. It's the right layout. It's the fence yard for the dog. Everything is perfect about it except it might need a new furnace or a new roof. In the long run, you know, every house is going to need something. Home warranties are good.

You know, they're not the end all be all with the answers to things. But I think that they sometimes just have. help pacify a buyer. And sometimes I'll say to my seller, let's offer a home warranty. It's less than $800 and it seals the deal. OK, so you made it through negotiations. And we are at the last couple days. And you are right before your final walkthrough.

Can you talk me through what your final walkthrough looks like? It's pretty simple. It's really just making sure the house looks like it did the last time you saw it, whether that was at the inspection or if you waived your inspection, then it was at the time that you looked at the house. You have to explain to them that there's going to be normal wear and tear, right? Somebody, if you have hardwood floors and you now remove your your, um, your, um, your, um, beautiful oriental rug that was in the living room, you're going to have a sun tan mark, right? The light that's hitting it. The floors underneath that rug are

going to be perfect, they've never been walked on, you have to prepare that. And I am all about managing someone's expectations. It's really important. And it's an important part so that buyers don't walk in that day and they say, this is what we bought? You know, you want them to know, like, once the pictures are off the wall, right? I don't care if the house was just painted. If pictures are hanging on the wall, you're going to need to touch up some paint and do those things. So it's so rare that something comes up at a last at a walkthrough. And if it's my sellers, I tell them, go through the house and I always will go to the house the day before I walk through and do my own walkthrough and make sure that everything and, you know, check everything. Make sure, you know, faucets are working and, you know, that kind of stuff.

Make sure no leaks, et cetera. So that's super smart of you. I know my first year. So I actually never ended up doing that even though I wanted to. I just felt like I was slammed, which may or may not have been true. But I remember just showing up when the seller hasn't done their part as when you're representing a buyer. And you might have even like done everything right. You know, you checked in with their side, confirmed that all the items were done, you collected the invoices for whatever,

and then you show up with the buyer and you know, they're going to sign later today and the house is just and you're like, no. Yes, exactly, exactly. It's the freaking worst. And when you look, you can't do anything about it when it's your buyer. You're not going to get into a house a day before. But to me, you know, agents are so quick about just ending their relationship. Okay, your house is under deposit next.

And you got to just stay in touch with them. And you know, did you do this? Did you do that? I have a closing that's going to happen on Monday. And I talked to my seller yesterday. And I said to her, like, you know, let's talk about like, I have in my mind. my notes, the propane tanks are leased. I have down that the security system is leased, like make sure I have all of those numbers and then pass it on to the buyer's agent, and then I'll

print out a copy of it and hand it to that buyer's agent at the closing, I mean at the walkthrough, just to make sure that everything is done. So it's hard, but a lot of times like, I'm still a file person. Here I'm going to show you my age again. My office doesn't like it. I print out everything and make a file. When it's on my desktop, it's just, it's lost. And so I like to print out everything and I write right on the file, check, you know, phone number or make sure you get, you know, the oil, you know, that's left in the tank so we can get reimbursed for it. You know, don't leave any money on the table for your client, but I'm a big, I definitely keep 3M sticky notes in business because I have a lot of sticky

notes everywhere. So really important just to, you know, again, whatever strategy works. for you, but just make sure that your ducks are in order. I think that that point about making sure your clients don't leave any money on the table, too, or just thinking through all the little details that they wouldn't know to expect. Because in the beginning, you're like, I'm a relationship's person. And that's, you know, a lot of people say that. And it's like, what does that actually mean? But I think that your examples here of every little bit of extra effort you put to think

through, what would I want if I was in their shoes, what would I appreciate in going the extra mile consistently is probably what, you know, at from the buyer's spread, I'd be like, wow, oh my gosh, I never would have freaking thought of that. Thank you so much. Yeah. Yeah. And even as simple as, um, make sure you, you know, change, you know, changing your address, right?

But change it in Amazon. Change it in anything that you get regularly. I had a client freak out on me because they forgot to change. I was representing the buyer and the. seller's agent called me the seller never changed their contact prescription. They get them in the mail every month, you know, like the throwaway contacts. And there was piles of them, you know, at the house. You know, can they come over and get them.

So whatever you can think of, just help your client. They're, you remember, they're packing up sometimes, you know, they've been in their house for 20 years. They don't even think about changing something. So, you know, but it's important just details, just little details. If you go on and read my Google reviews, I think what I have read consistently over and over again from my clients is Susan treats us like we were her only client. And that's that's a lot for me. That means a lot.

Yes, it's exhausting. Yes, I sometimes work 50, 60 hours a week. You do what you have to do. And yes, it does take away from your family. And it's the other thing that I do tell a lot of these young agents, you can't beat your yourself up. Not everyone is going to do 20, 25, 30, 50 million a year, especially if you have a young family. And so you have to figure out ways how to, you know, do business behind the scenes and not take away from your family if that's what's important to you. But, you know,

you just, you can't expect to do everything. And you had a guest on recently, um, um, Kela who talked about, you know, her YouTube, which is my goal for this. year. That's my 2024 goal to get on YouTube. But Kayla talked about and I thought it was brilliant, how people are viewing her content when she's sleeping or when she's home with her young family. And that's important. So you just have to figure out the system that's going to work for you. I was there every single day to pick my daughter up from school. That was important. So every day in my calendar from three to five was an appointment to pick pick up my daughter. And just as if I had an appointment to show you a house and you,

someone else called and wanted to see a house at that time, I'd say, sorry, I'm already booked. That was my appointment because that was really important to me. I didn't cook dinner, but I got to see her after school and find out, you know, what happened. Um, so, you know, you just have to make a decision, own it. If you own any decision that you make in life, it just makes things easy and smooth. Susan, what did we not cover today that? you wanted to hit on or what is the future hold for you the future holds you too um definitely it's an uncomfortable thing and you know again you know the the young agents out there um

you know like yourself or you know young and pretty and you know don't have to wear a lot of makeup etc it's easier for right i always feel like you know my age like do people really want to see me and one time I put a filter on because I was looking at all these girls going they always look beautiful look like models right I put a filter on and my daughter called me and my daughter's 35 and she called me and she said what did you do to yourself and I said why and she was like it didn't look like you and I was like oh I tried to filter and she's like don't do it again so and then when I'll do like one day I posted a video I had two home inspections in a row and had no time for lunch.

And the home inspector brought a box of canollies. And I posted a video of myself exhausted. And I was like, you know, went from a closing to two home inspections, you know, one after another. Here I am. It's five o'clock. And all I'm doing, all I've eaten today so far is this canole. And I'm like eating it on the video.

And my son-in-law called me and he was like, that's the most authentic video you've ever done. Do more of that. So, you know, it's, again, you have to do what's comfortable for you. but I'm done with filters and realize that, you know, I am who I am. And people are going to hire me because of my knowledge, not because of what I look like, whatever age you are. So, you know, just be your authentic self. But so YouTube is definitely, it's an uncomfortable future for me, but it's my goal this year.

We're all going to be on the lookout. Thank you. Dual licensing. I'm going to get licensed in Florida also. My entire family is in Florida. I'm the only person here in Connecticut and I own property there, but I've never been licensed there. So that's in my future. I think I have no idea. People ask me all the time, am I going to retire ever? That's an unknown question. I love, you have to love what you do to do it this long. I love this business. I love the adrenaline and I think that, you know, maybe teaching, you know, when I do decide to retire someday. teach you know mentoring in real estate which is why I started a team because I do enjoy teaching

and I do enjoy helping. So that's about that's my future. The and I think you had mentioned even in one of your emails to me about you know something I something that you know if there's anything that I've learned recently and I read a quote that has been in my mind and it's basically just saying like know your value right especially like like on the heels of NAR and everything that's been going on, know your value. And, you know, Chanel, Cartier, Louis Vuitton, they never go on sale. And they don't go on sale because they know their worth. So I think that if you, you have to treat yourself like luxury also, don't reduce your value just to appeal the masses. So, you know, know your value. Show your luxury of service. And

Again, be your authentic self and you will build relationships and relationships will lead into more and more and more business. So that's my key. Susan, is there anything else for our listeners or where you would like to direct them to reach out? No, we have LinkedIn, um, Instagram. It's Susan Santoro underscore realtor. Uh, Facebook is just Susan Santoro.

LinkedIn is Susan Santoro. TikTok of the CT Realtor. So TikTok has become a thing for me. I do offer, we didn't talk about that, but I do offer, you know, video. I do video of my homes. I do staging virtually, very important. Everyone is buying a house online right now. They're not necessarily coming to see it.

Virtual staging is some is more important in my opinion than actually putting furniture in a house, an empty house. So lots of great, easy to do virtual staging. So important to do that and we've talked about that on TikTok as well. And then, you know, William Pitt.com agents, you know, Susan Santoro or the Susan Santoro team. For today, Susan, thanks again for coming on. Thank you. Thanks for asking me. Of course.

Real estate rocks arts. Thanks for listening.