Who’s the agent, again?

So here’s where the story really starts. At this point, I’ve started the process to get licensed in Mississippi state as a real estate agent, took the tests, background check, paid a lot of people money... and finally I’m licensed and in the MLS.

I see a house pop up, two actually on one lot and LOVE it: the day I was leaving for a 10 day trip for Spain...The agent assures me it will likely be there when I return. And of course it’s not. But I should back up a step. I actually FOUND the house I wanted to buy a month earlier....but I wasn’t quite ready, so my sister and brother in law ended up buying it. It’s another great rental, with a pool if you need more houses close together!

So I plan trip when I return, and ask Melani if she wants to come and she says sure. We planned on only a few days. The good news, is we can stay in the house my sister just got (you know the one I wanted...) so there is that.

I can’t even begin to describe the cluster f of a trip it was. We spend several hours that evening organizing routes and scheduling showings for the next day, for the WHOLE day.... We are talking over 30 properties covering the 27 mile strip of the gulf coast from Bay St. Louie to Ocean Springs.

Things went awry from the start. Agents kept calling to ensure I was a licensed agent because the MLS had input me as a categorized name. Not associated with any brokerage, which was true at the time, I hadn’t completed my MS corporation and trade name for there yet, but since I was a managing broker in Colorado I could be there, and not associated with another company name. Let’s just say, this clearly doesn’t happen often because no one knew how to deal with it. Eventually, a very nice agent clued me into why everyone was reaching out telling us what it looked like from her side. While on that call, we figured out that anything set on my computer through the showings service was OFF by an hour due to the time change, but anything set on the app on my phone, was accurate.

Keep in mind, we are using a new MLS, new contracts, new electronic signing software, new rules and regulations and new customs and processes. Literally the only software unchanged, was the showing service software, which ultimately had a time zone issue discrepancy in how it worked between the online and app versions. Multiple calls to tech support couldn’t figure it out, nor did escalating up the chain of command to the senior programmers. We eventually figured it out with trail and error...But now we know.

So off we go. We think. First house. First lockbox. First door. Has a Sentrilock lockbox. What is this you ask? A more complicated version of electronic lockbox that tracks everyone in and out. Makes sense. We have them in Colorado too, but if you don’t have the keycard, you simply get a “day code” which is a really long code that only works for a specific time. However that’s not how it works in MS. Nope. You need the app, which requires an application filled out and emailed in, a start up fee, a monthly fee, and a day to set up. The agent was so confused when we called asking for a day code. So we start the process, and beg for help getting it going. This particular agent had a key hidden in an outdoor place, so we were able to see this house. The rest of the day was phone call after phone call explaining we were running late, and that we didn’t have Sentrilock set up yet, asking agents for another way in, or kicking the house to the next day if we liked the area. I do think that first house was the ONLY house we saw on time that day for all of the reasons. It was a hot mess. But we made it.

BTW, guess when we got our app working for easy access? You guessed it, the last house. And you know what a jerk Murphys law is? That particular house had a manual lockbox. Of course it did.

We have a nice dinner and regroup for the next day. Feeling more prepared.

We were not.

I waited too long to write about all of this, so I don’t even remember what happened most of the day, but it was not much better than the first day, and we were headed home the next day.

But what I DO remember, was pulling up to one that on paper looked amazing, but also over budget and appeared to be a train wreck. It had already been under contract and was back on the market and then had a decent price reduction by the time we got there, so we figured if no one else wanted it, why would we. We pulled up and looked at the jungle and and thought holy shit that’s a lot of work, but we went through the front door.

You know that move when you are driving, and slam on the brakes, and do the arm fling brace for the passenger that may or may not be riding besides you? I did that to Melani just inside the front door.

I simply said “this is it.”

We started walking through the property, and it just got better and better while the project list grew, and grew and GREEEEEWWWWW...But I could see it. I could see everything. It was 2 buildings, but 3 separate homes, on one lot, and TWO bonus vacant lots. A block off the ocean, and in the Wild West of short term rental regulations (meaning as of the time of writing this, Gulfport was one of the few gulf coast towns with NO short term rental regulation). I couldn’t figure out how to NOT make money.

And the more I looked at it, the more I pictured the girls and the cousins and friends in the bunkhouse, and the old folks in the bungalow, and the adults in the main house. I could just see the laughter for generations to come. I became VERY emotional about the idea of purchasing it. Something that has only ever happened to me one other time, which was the barn we live at now.

The problem was that our condo in California wasn’t under contract yet. BUT we are in MS, it’s different here, properties sit on the market longer and longer. So we called the agent. I let Melani talk, I literally couldn’t put a sentence together at this point. She told us they would likely consider an offer contingent without being under contract. And I started crying.

We went back to my sisters and started preparing the offer. On the new contract, we had never filled out. Got a bit of advice from a other local agent we work with sometimes, for which we kicked him back some commission. The next morning, we were almost submitted when we got the call that there was another offer coming in. Damn it. So we added in a few more clauses and came up to full price. Got it submitted.

Waited most of the day with no new news. But the agent kept saying the seller wanted to work with us, and we were the first offer in. Literally on the way to the airport, we got the call a 3rd offer was in. I started crying again. It was gone. I can’t compete. Melani stopped me. She said what would you tell a client in the same position, I’m the agent now. (She already was at this point). I buckled down, did some research on reverse 1031 exchanges. Called my dad for a loan (he said no), found another way, but then that didn’t work. At this point, we are trying to catch our flight home, have driven past the car rental place 3 times, and can’t seem to get to the right place in the airport. We are trying to up the offer, and add in another couple clauses, waived inspection objections on little items, and had the foresight to add a non refundable earnest money of $2500. Nothing to us, but was a big deal to them. We through EVERYTHING we had to offer at it. It was everything we could possibly offer. And I was at peace.

We BARELY made it to our gate, and as we were literally on the runway taking off, texts were coming in saying the owner REALLY wanted to work with us, and was taking our offer, we would have signatures when we landed. Then I cried. Again.

And THEN I literally made 8 lists of all the things I needed to do, and prepare for to ensure the condo sold in our timeframe, and make this all happen. It was a billboard’s worth of a whiteboard of details and a LOT of work.

Long story short, we had to reduce our condo and literally BARELY got it sold in time to buy this... But we did it.

And now the real work begins...

Next
Next

I’m a REALTOR, and I hired a REALTOR...