Southern Oregon Real Estate Show - Home Warranties

Full Video Transcript Below

[00:00:00] Alice Lema: Well, good morning, Southern Oregon, and welcome to another edition of the real estate show. I'm Alice Lema. I'll be your host today. Here and the real estate show. I am a broker here in Southern Oregon with John L. Scott real estate. And we've had another tremendous week in Southern Oregon housing. We have so many more listings coming on the market, not as many multiple offers situations, but there are still some.

[00:00:35] And I just wanted to mention that some of the buyers are really pushing back in those multiple offers situations. Now, you know, a few months ago it was common that buyers would do anything, anything. Or they would go to very extreme lengths to win those multiple offers situations. And I know every, every transaction is different, but I'm seeing a little bit of a pattern.

[00:00:59] And I'm hearing from some of my other agent coworkers that the buyers are pushing back. They're withdrawing their offers. Or they're just resubmitting the same offer that they submitted in the beginning. Why am I bringing this up? Because yet another sign of the quote, transition market end quote. So as we try to stabilize and normalize after all the extreme rises in prices and shortages, because of the COVID and and because of the Almeda side-effects on our housing here in Southern Oregon.

[00:01:33] finally getting some more inventory. The buyers are a little bit fed up. Some of them are not even buying now. We've had many agents tell me that buyers are just pulling their head out of the ring completely and opting to wait until next year or the year after.

[00:01:51] Which, you know, a lot of us have opinions about that only because if the interest rates change, you know, they might not be so happy they did that. But everybody's got to make their own decision. That's why we have this radio show every week so that you can be an informed consumer. So today we're happy to welcome the home warranty queen Lisa Justason from Fidelity Home Warranty and fidelity home warranty has done a great job of staying current, changing their program, changing their policies for home warranties during the COVID.

[00:02:24] And Lisa's going to bring us up to speed on all the new stuff. Plus, if your listing or your a seller,then she has a way for you to maybe get a freebie policy on your listing before you go into escrow. So you want to listen to that interview with Lisa Justason of fidelity home warranty. And then for our fourth segment, the market watch, we're so excited to have Chad Guthrie, John L. Scott in Grants Pass, join us and talk about some of the trends he's seen with the locals moving out of the area. And why that's happening. And then some of the other locals that are choosing to buy bigger. So Chad Guthrie, John L. Scott in Grants Pass will be joining us for MarketWatch. So stay to the end.

[00:03:07] We'll be right back from a word of our sponsor. Do not touch that dial.

[00:03:12] Well, good morning again, folks. And welcome back to the real estate show. I'm Alice Lema broker John L. Scott here in beautiful Southern Oregon. I'm your host for today and I'm with the ever informative, ever lovely Lisa Justason from fidelity home warranty. Good morning. Welcome Lisa.

[00:03:29] Lisa Justason: Good morning, Alice. Thanks for having me.

[00:03:31] Alice Lema: Well, you're one of my favorite guests. You always have so much positivity and also some real practical tips. For those folks out there that don't know what a home warranty is. Can you just maybe touch on that briefly? Because not everybody knows what it is.

[00:03:47] Lisa Justason: That's a true and accurate statement. What I find a lot is people are confused between what a home warranty is and what their home owner's insurance. So there's a few differences. One of which is when you have a mortgage and you are required to have homeowners insurance. Which, why would you not want it anyway? But it is a requirement. If you have a loan home, warranties are not required. Sometimes they can, depending on the type of loan but typically they're not. But what we do, we do things very different from what your homeowners insurance does. So we cover all of your major systems and appliances from normal wear and tear.

[00:04:26] So as they age or with normal use, as those things fail we'll go ahead and take care of that. Sometimes we'll work in conjunction with your homeowner's insurance and an example might be if your dishwasher leaks all over the place, because it's malfunctioned and ruins your flooring, your home warranty company will replace that dishwasher, but we won't do anything about the damage with the floor.

[00:04:53] Your homeowner's insurance will not replace your dishwasher, but they will address the, the flooring issue. So sometimes we'll work in conjunction with each other.

[00:05:03] Alice Lema: So who coordinates all that? I mean, it's great that you have that. I didn't know that you could dissect it that way. Does the homeowner make arrangements between the two of you. Okay.

[00:05:13] Lisa Justason: Yes. Yep. And, and typically what they'll do is initially contact their homeowners insurance because of course the damage part is what needs to be addressed immediately. And then, you know, we get involved as soon as they give us a call.

[00:05:28] Alice Lema: Okay. So if you're on vacation and there's some kind of a leak in your dishwasher, cause that's what we all do before we leave. Right. Lock the door. Then a home warranty would cover the dishwasher itself and your homeowners insurance would cover the damage to the floor. Okay. Super cool. So one of the things that first time home buyers don't always understand is when you move into a house you're using it differently. Do you have some tips for first time people, some of the things to watch out.

[00:06:05] Lisa Justason: Yes. Again, to your point, what I like to do when I'm talking to new buyers or new homeowners is just keep in mind homes have personalities. So if, if you've got a family of say six and your kids are in there and they're pushing the buttons on the microwave, or they're pushing the buttons on the dishwasher. Or maybe even it's just getting used more because your family is larger than the previous owners.

[00:06:32] Keep in mind that homes respond poorly sometimes. And that's not necessarily an indication of anything other than let's just get that taken care of for you. Sometimes I'll get calls with the assumption of, oh, this was broken already and people are upset. And so I just like to reassure them typically, that's absolutely not the case.

[00:06:56] And that's why you have a home warranty.

[00:06:58] Alice Lema: So it's not that it was bad or something was, they were misled. It's just normal wear and tear from different uses. So sometimes when people move into a house, the stove, like not all the burners willwork is that something you guys can address?

[00:07:16] Lisa Justason: Oh, absolutely. So when I mentioned the systems and appliances, all your built-in appliances are automatically covered. Keep in mind though that when it is an escrow transaction, home warranty companies require things, be in good working order when our policy starts. So most of the time a buyer will have a home inspection done. If there are issues they get called out on that inspection and can be addressed through the negotiations.

[00:07:46] Alice Lema: Okay. So that's interesting. I, I, I just love talking to you because I always learn so much. So what you just said was if you're getting a home warranty with your purchase, which most of us, that's how we get one, then we want everything to be in. Good. You want everything to be in good working order when you do the policy?

[00:08:05] Okay. So if somebody calls up later or they're just hearing about this for the first time on this show and they call you up, what's the scenario for, for that? Do you make them get an inspection?

[00:08:20] Lisa Justason: Oh, that's a great question. And no, we don't. So, and again, I'm speaking for fidelity. Every company works a little differently. But so I'll just speak to what our company does. And with fidelity, we don't require any inspections. What we do, and this is typical in the industry is there's a 30 day waiting period. Once you've ordered and paid for your coverage we have a 30 day waiting period before your context starts. And that's how we assure that things are in good working.

[00:08:51] Alice Lema: Cool. So we talked about stoves and dishwashers. What other kinds of appliances and systems does fidelity home warranty cover?

[00:09:00] Lisa Justason: So we cover, again, like I said, automatically your dishwasher, your stove, your oven, your built-in microwave. Those are all covered. We also have coverage for your refrigerator, for your washer dryer.

[00:09:14] If you have a freezer, we have coverage for those, all those appliances. We also cover just to touch on your water heater, your plumbing. So if you have a plumbing stoppage, which is very common, especially soon after closing. Because again, the home is responding to having new people. So that's not uncommon at all.

[00:09:37] We cover faucets. We cover electrical, which includes your garage door opener. Yeah, so it's a really good well-rounded policy.

[00:09:48] Alice Lema: Wow. Wow. So let's go back and talk about plumbing and electrical, because those can be kind of a big deal. If, if you're moved in and there's some kind of a plumbing leak under the house after the fact, is that, how does that work?

[00:10:08] Lisa Justason: That is definitely covered. Typically if it's within the foundation of the home and there's a leak under the home will absolutely be covered with fidelity, we also have additional coverage that is optional. If you wanted any outside plumbing to be covered.

[00:10:25] Alice Lema: Oh, really? Like like what, what would that, what, what kind of outside plumbing are you talking about?

[00:10:30] Lisa Justason: So a lot of times, and I know like a hose bib it's on the home, but it's the outside of the home, home warranty companies will not cover for those, but also if you've got a water break or sewage or even a gas leak there is limited coverage for that with fidelity.

[00:10:46] Alice Lema: Oh my gosh. That's amazing. So is the sewer pipe an option?

[00:10:52] Lisa Justason: Well it's if it's the yeah, it definitely can be now keep in mind home warranty companies won't pay for access. So we're going to be helpful in that situation, we're not going to unearth the, the issue, so that'll be on the homeowner, but we will be helpful with the cost for that reason.

[00:11:11] Alice Lema: Wow. Lisa, that's amazing. That really is amazing. You know it's unusual in Southern Oregon for people to even check their sewer pipe from the house to the city main. I don't know why it's we have such old systems and Southern Oregon, and now to hear that that can actually be insured through fidelity home warranty. That's outstanding.

[00:11:35] Lisa Justason: Well, I appreciate that. Yeah. What, what happens is, as, as homes change, as people's needs change, we at least with fidelity, we, we try to stay on top of that. Make changes to our coverage to match the needs of our homeowners.

[00:11:54] Alice Lema: So you're talking about the company itself is kind of evolving with the times.

[00:12:00] Lisa Justason: As an example, we recently just rolled out our new policies with our new coverage. It now includes with some of our coverage, it includes smart home option. Yeah. You know, I mean, so many of us have the nest thermostat or the, you know, ring doorbell, keyless entries. Home warranty companies will not cover for those. So we saw a need and we created coverage that would address them.

[00:12:30] Alice Lema: You mean other home warranty companies.

[00:12:35] So, yeah, and I don't mean to sound like a commercial, but I just love you guys. We've had nothing, but but good response. And now that I know that you've got all these extra cost options and it never occurred to me that, of course any business would have to evolve and change. But to add smart homes. So for example, like what could go wrong in a smart home? You know, we all walk around thinking electronics are full-proof.

[00:12:59] Lisa Justason: Well, they're definitely not. And it's a little bit above my pay grade to go into specifics about how they fail, but thermostats can go out at any time and really the same with doorbells. And with some home warranty companies, a traditional doorbell should be covered under your electrical, but if it's a smart appliance, a smart doorbell, It's it's excluded from the home warranty companies. So we just saw that need and made that change.

[00:13:29] Alice Lema: That's great. That's great. So a regular home warranty base, like normal. I don't know what you call it, but standard for, just say a single story. 1500 square foot house, three bedrooms, two bathroom. About how much money are we talking a year?

[00:13:47] Lisa Justason: So if you're wanting just the basic with upgraded with air conditioning, of course, and he, that's going to be $450. If you're needing additional coverage with to include your refrigerator, your washer dryer, and with our policy, we added the smart home option, and we've also added another feature that I'll mention in a minute and that's $560.

[00:14:14] Alice Lema: Okay, but I think that's still a bargain.

[00:14:17] Lisa Justason: Well, it is. And especially when you see the cost increase, it's just amazing to me. Oh, home or a hot water heater used to be between 800 and a thousand dollars, which is still pretty spendy. Now it is not uncommon for us to pay up to, to $2,500 to have a home or a hot water heater replaced.

[00:14:38] Alice Lema: Oh my goodness. I remember when they were like 200, I guess I'm dating myself.

[00:14:44] Lisa Justason: Well, you know, here's the difference to Alice, if you're a really handy and you're a homeowner, you can, you can replace your own water heater and the standards are different, right? So you can go to Home Depot, purchase a water heater and go from there. When you're dealing with home warranty companies, we're governed by the department of insurance and that, that, that protects our homeowners. But it also, you know, raises the price for home warranty companies because we have to use a licensed and insured plumber. And we have to dispose of the old water heater appropriately and properly, which is a lot more expensive than it used to be.

[00:15:24] And then any code modifications that have to happen, have to happen. So the costs for a homeowner, if you're really handy and can do it yourself would be less expensive than what the home warranty will pay. But even if you're handy and you'd know how to do it, you may not have the time. So that's where the home warranty is really going to be helpful time and money.

[00:15:47] Alice Lema: And well, and also a lot of our community remembers when they were in shape enough to perform those house repairs themselves. And then it's like, oh no, I shouldn't have done that. So anyway, Lisa, hold on. We've got a break coming up. We're talking to Lisa Justason of fidelity home warranty, getting a lot of new information and a lot of tips do not touch that dial. The real estate show will be right back.

[00:16:12] Yeah, that went by so fast. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We should probably have you on a couple of times a year. So I inherited the show. That's why Pete's not here.

[00:16:23] Lisa Justason: I wondered about that.

[00:16:24] Alice Lema: Pete retired. I forgot to tell you that. Yeah. And I'm still learning the ropes, so I'm a little, we're figuring it out week by week, so, okay. So this is our life segment, 13 minutes and 30 seconds. Not last segment for the videographers last segment for Lisa. Okay. So this is segment three 13 minutes and 30 seconds starting in. Two one.

[00:16:53] Well, welcome back to the real estate show folks. I'm Alice Lema broker, John L. Scott here in Southern Oregon talking to Lisa Justason of fidelity home warranty. And we're just talking about some of the interesting new things that fidelity home warranty has added like smart home, and insuring your sewer pipe. But one of the things that I wanted to touch on was for rural properties.

[00:17:18] Do you have any, any systems that fidelity home warranty covers for that? And how does that work?

[00:17:24] Lisa Justason: You know, I'm so happy that you asked that question because we do, we have well pump coverage. We have coverage for your septic system. So definitely what I try to tell my real estate class. Is when they're writing an offer, you need to really think for a minute about that specific property.

[00:17:45] Does it have a well, if it has a well, I always recommend that you do get the coverage because as you know, Alice, it can work fine one day and then break and you're done. Septic systems is a little bit different in my opinion, because if the seller has had it pumped, if you've had it inspected prior to closing and all looked well, then chances are less likely that you're going to have a failure within your first year.

[00:18:17] It can still happen. We absolutely have the coverage, but I always like to give you, give you the real story behind, you know, what I see.

[00:18:26] Alice Lema: Yeah. So I'm on the septic system because those could be tens of thousands of dollars. Are you, are you as a home warranty company really signing up to do, like what kind of repair are we talking about?

[00:18:40] Lisa Justason: That's a very important question. And I'm glad you asked it home warranty. Companies will not even touch the leach fields, which is the, the lion's share of the cost if there's a failure somewhere. But what we'll cover is we'll cover the aerobic pump. The ejector pump we'll cover the line from the house to the tank covered.

[00:19:02] We cover the, to have it pumped if that's what's needed. Yeah, so, I mean, it's a very worthwhile. But there are limitations to it, for sure. Yeah. Okay.

[00:19:11] Alice Lema: So the leach lines are not even an extra cost option. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and I can see why that's, that's a real specialty for sure. So on and on the well systems, that would be the pump. So those could be spendy.

[00:19:28] Lisa Justason: can be spending. And here's another thing just to piggyback on that. Because they're spendy and home warranty companies, the majority of us have a limit of $1,500, which is the most generous in the industry, but it doesn't always cover the cost. And so we created, again, this, this isn't new and it's, it's unique to fidelity.

[00:19:51] We call it our, pump it up option and it doubles the cost from 1500 to $3,000 for the well pump. It also doubles the septic coverage.

[00:20:02] Alice Lema: Wow. Wow. That's very practical. Cause those are expensive systems. Yeah. So what about electrical? What kind of repairs do you see coming through for those?

[00:20:17] Lisa Justason: There's a huge, large gamut going from, if you have a whole house fan, even though that kind of sounds like it would be an HVAC air conditioning heating person. It really is usually an electrician that would deal with that. If you've got an outlet that is not, you know, you know, working for you, if you have even your ceiling fan or your. Light fixture. If there's a problem, not with the light fixture itself, but if there's an electrical issue with that light, definitely that's covered even breakers and your electric box can be covered.

[00:20:53] Wow. Wow. That's very generous actually.

[00:20:57] Yeah, because that can get pretty spendy also.

[00:21:00] Alice Lema: Right. And, you know, even when you have an inspection and everything, like you said before, a house could be fine. And then a few months later, or a few hours later, it won'tbe, and also storms and earthquakes or wind it's, they they're constantly changing. They're not static entities, houses, properties are changing. And so I wanted to ask about rentals. Do you have any suggestions for people who own rental properties and how would home warranties fit into that?

[00:21:31] Lisa Justason: We actually have a lots of owners or and/or property management company that we work with. The coverage is the same. The cost is the same. The only differences you as the owner would let us know who you want us to communicate with. If you have a property manager or if you self-manage. One thing that fidelity does as well is if you've got five or more properties warrantied with us, we give you an investor discount on each of those.

[00:22:01] Alice Lema: Gosh, I didn't know that. That's great.

[00:22:04] Lisa Justason: And we do cover just to kind of piggyback on that, we cover all sorts of properties as long as they're residential. So if you're an investor and you've got of course single family homes, but even if you have an apartment building and you want each unit to be covered, we do have coverage for that. So as long as it's for residential use, we can cover that.

[00:22:26] Alice Lema: Wow. That's great. Well, you know, here in Southern Oregon, we do have a certain amount of waterfront properties. But I'm just trying to think if they would have any special needs, probably, probably just, yeah if there was a flood or something that would be homeowners, insurance.

[00:22:43] Yeah. Well, I know on the electrical side people find mysterious light switches and like you said, the ceiling fan won't work, so let's say they have a problem and they want to use their home warranty. What are, what's the procedure for that?

[00:23:03] Lisa Justason: So we do have a service department. It's very easy to request service. You can go online to our website, which is home warranty.com. And there's a little button that says quick claim. You just click on that. You put the address in and you know, it prompts you what you need. And within less than two minutes usually you've got a claim started. For those that prefer to speak with a human being., We also have an 800 number.

[00:23:33] Alice Lema: Because not all of us like to, but if you're one of those you can, that's great.

[00:23:41] Lisa Justason: Yes, it is. There's a lot of different ways that you can do that. And of course, I'm always a resource. If I've got a homeowner who can't remember how to get in touch with us. Hopefully, they've got my card somewhere floating around and they can call me.

[00:23:56] Alice Lema: Yeah. And you can also call your agent. I get a lot of those calls at night and on the weekend. And we always keep those documents and have those fun phone numbers available. Cause you know, when that happens in your home, you're a little bit panicky. You're a little bit. And it's hard to remember where all your stuff is.

[00:24:10] So yeah, you can reach out to Lisa or your agent directly for, for that kind of help. So I'm very, very impressed with how quickly you get service people out, especially with this post-fire post COVID labor shortage, all of our homeowners that have warranties with you with fidelity have been getting excellent, excellent service response from the technician.

[00:24:34] Lisa Justason: I really, that's what I like to hear. We do work really hard to have quality technicians and we communicate well with each other, the technician and our company to, to create a good professional relationship. And I find that when a home warranty company like fidelity, when we're able to do that. If our technicians are happy that our homeowners are going to be happy.

[00:24:59] And so it's very important to us. And we do spend a lot of extra time, I think compared to other companies in that arena to make sure that we provide the best service possible.

[00:25:10] Alice Lema: And the technicians are very well-known. It's not like they're just working for Fidelity, they're the actual plumber or electrician you might normally call anyway, is that right.

[00:25:22] Lisa Justason: So a lot of the time you know, they're, they're a, third-party. Because they're their own licensed contractor and we've just created a relationship so that they will work with us. But again, they'll also do retail work as well. We've got several local that have exceptional reputations that I know you guys as realtor professionals, you use them all the time, you know, privately or on a retail side.

[00:25:50] Alice Lema: Now, what about someone who wants to sell their house? Is it possible for them to maybe talk to you and use it, use a fidelity home warranty ahead of time. How does that work for a seller?

[00:26:07] Lisa Justason: And I'm so glad that you asked that question, because if you're a seller looking to list your house, put it on the market and you meet with a realtor of course, you're probably going to use Alice. I would recommend her .What you would do is on your listing appointment, you would let them know as a seller, and I'll just give you some statistics that I know are accurate. If the seller offers to provide the home warranty for their buyer, their home on average sells for $2,300 more then the exact home where there's no home warranty offered.

[00:26:45] It also sells for 16% faster than a like home. And I know in the current market, you know, the sellers don't sometimes, necessarily think that they need to offer anything additional. But it's a huge benefit for them. It's a low cost risk management, so that if something does happen. And when you do that as a realtor and you're on your listing appointment and you have your agreement and now it's on the market, you contact me, you don't wait until you have an offer.

[00:27:17] You contact me. And we put that home warranty in place from day one, so that your seller has coverage from the first day they've listed with you. And that coverage and with fidelity, it's complimentary. So nobody pays for protecting your seller. And then it goes through the escrow process up to 180 days, your seller will be covered.

[00:27:44] And then it will transition to the buyer's full one year policy at close.

[00:27:50] Alice Lema: We gotta say that again. You're giving away free home warranties to the sellers so they don't have to pay for it. It gets paid out of escrow when you have a contract with a buyer. So what happens to the sellers? Something happens to the sellers, you know, dishwasher stove, before they have a buyer, are they covered?

[00:28:12] Lisa Justason: Absolutely. And this happens a lot. So I'll get a call, you know sometimes it's two weeks after they've listed and they don't even have an offer yet and something needs to be repaired or replaced. Other times I've had it happen where they're so close to closing, you know, a day or two prior to closing buyer goes and does their final walkthrough and goes to, you know use something.

[00:28:36] One time I had the water heater, thankfully it was in the garage, it completely failed. And the sellers had already vacated the home, had left the area. So it was, you know, it was great that they had our home warranty coverage. We replaced that water heater two days before close of escrow. It was flued and clean and everybody was happy.

[00:28:58] Alice Lema: Oh my gosh. Wow. What a story? Because you know, that has happened to all of us and the seller's always gone. I don't know how it is. It's like the house knows. It's like, let's do it now. Let's fall apart. And, and for those listening, buyers have the option of not closing in those moments. And if you're in a labor shortage and a supply shortage, like we are now, I didn't even think of this Lisa, but boy, that could be devastated.

[00:29:23] Could it could ruin. You know, a whole domino of people's plans. Yeah. Wow. So free home warranty to sellers, when you list with fidelity home warranty. Well Lisa Justason and we're, I'm going, gonna take a break. We're going to do our market watch segment yet. We'd love to have you back. Thank you so much. Lisa Justason fidelity home warranty. She's amazing. Thank you so much.

[00:29:47] Lisa Justason: Thank you so much, Alice. It's always a pleasure.

[00:29:50] Alice Lema: So stay tuned. We'll be right back with our market. Watch segment. Do not touch that dial.

[00:29:55] Well, welcome back to the real estate show everybody. I'm Alice Lema, broker John L. Scott here in Southern Oregon your host for today. And I am so excited to have my friend Chad Guthrie, John L. Scott, up in Grants Pass joining us today for our weekly market watch segment. Welcome Chad. Thank you. Yeah, thanks for doing this. We just love all the transactions we've done with you. It's, it's been very professional and very fun.

[00:30:23] So I'm just, you know, here it is in November and I'm just so curious to hear your take on your business, your market, and kind of what's happening this week.

[00:30:34] Chad Guthrie: It gets busy in the fall. And so we did have a transition from summer to fall, but we are busy again, and people are like to move at the end of the year for whatever reason.

[00:30:44] So it's been busy with buyers locally. So that's been good.

[00:30:49] Alice Lema: Yeah. What kind of price points are people landing in? Is any of that changing.

[00:30:54] Chad Guthrie: It's gone up and what I've seen in my time in real estate two of the four buyers were all buyers three or four years ago. And so we went from the two and threes to the fives and sixes. So significant increases. Yeah.

[00:31:12] Alice Lema: And were they buying in Josephine County?

[00:31:14] Chad Guthrie: I guess mine are just one, one in Jackson, but the other three in Josephine.

[00:31:18] Alice Lema: And so are these people that are up-sizing then is that what's happening?

[00:31:23] Chad Guthrie: One is definitely up-sizing on the footage. So they grew out of their first home and they're moving into their second home and they'd like about 30% larger. The other folks are their first home, but they're in the sixes. So they have a small family and they plan on growing into the next home. So a lot of growth within families. So that's been the drive for my people.

[00:31:43] Alice Lema: And these are, these are local. Yeah. So that is so interesting. I'm so happy to hear the locals are taking advantage of this market because you know, this opportunity doesn't come along very often, does it Chad. Where we have this combination of low interest rates and yes, the prices are high, but the interest rate makes the payment low. So it's almost a soft lateral move in some respects because of the payments.

[00:32:09] Chad Guthrie: Yeah, the the financial side is lateral. Emotionally it's a little bit tougher just due to lack of supply. And the rates and the, what else was it? They get so much money. They have a lot of large down payment.

[00:32:18] Alice Lema: So that's, so that helps launch them into the next one.

[00:32:24] Chad Guthrie: Yeah, the equity in their home has really been a Slingshot into the next.

[00:32:28] Alice Lema: Okay. Well, it's nice to hear people are using it to buy other properties. I had a couple of millennials recently that sold their properties. They took the money and they went on the road.

[00:32:38] Chad Guthrie: Yeah. Yeah, it seems like that's a trend and I've seen it firsthand. Like one of my clients is on the road out of state today. So getting ahold of them is harder, but it's good for their family.

[00:32:50] Alice Lema: So, so are they keeping that lifestyle, that kind of nomadic lifestyle?

[00:32:56] Chad Guthrie: I think they're just looking for a change.

[00:32:59] So right or wrong, like they have the ability with our strong market to be able to make that choice where before maybe they couldn't make that choice.

[00:33:08] Alice Lema: Yeah. So how many out of towners do you have, like how many relocators compared to the locals. What's what's that mix like for you?

[00:33:18] Chad Guthrie: So 25% of my buyers are relocating here. And then the other two are possibly leaving. One has left. So half of them are going to be leaving.

[00:33:30] Alice Lema: Going where?

[00:33:32] Chad Guthrie: Well, it's a great question. East, south towards the south.

[00:33:37] Alice Lema: Wow. Leaving Oregon.

[00:33:42] Chad Guthrie: As beautiful as it is, and I've grown up in Oregon. So I've enjoyed what it brings the elements and the people. And I there's great people across the country, so they're just going to look for new scenery and a new life.

[00:33:53] Alice Lema: Okay. So that is such an interesting conversation because I'm dying to know, are these older people, younger people, are they going for jobs? Are they landlords? What can you tell us kind of demographically about who's leaving? Cause that's kind of a big percentage don't you think.

[00:34:08] Chad Guthrie: It is a big percentage, younger and I'm not sure what he's going to do,. But here he did, he just got his contractor's license. So I believe he's going to try to dabble in some real estate down there.

[00:34:18] And then the other one., He's going to continue to have the same career and just relocate for quality of life. So he's been looking into the cost of living, state taxes elsewhere, schools and then the people and political stances as well.

[00:34:32] Alice Lema: But. Yeah. I've had people call me up and asked me what kind of an area, the red and blue thing. And I'm not political. I'm just a capitalist. I jokingly call myself a capitalist pig, but it's like, I don't follow the politics. I just like, I don't know. I don't know what we are, but ask me about the houses. I can tell you that, but I know that there's a lot of people Googling all the specifics about all these other states that either have lower taxes or no taxes and this and that.

[00:34:59] And then they're coming up with some kind of a, a checklist and then applying that across the country and then picking based on data, which that's not how we used to pick where we live.

[00:35:11] Chad Guthrie: No, it wasn't, it was family and it still is to a point, but family was a big, one of the bigger draws. And then Arkansas has been a conversation piece for a lot of people.

[00:35:20] Alice Lema: Yeah. We just had somebody sell their house for like $200,000. They had a little starter home that they only just bought and they went to Arkansas and they bought a half acre with a three bedroom, two bath single story with internet in Arkansas for like a hundred thousand.

[00:35:39] Chad Guthrie: Yeah, I know the price per square foot is significantly less. Some of the areas or the area that I'm a little bit knowledgeable of, cause my client's moving there. It's been fast growing just like Idaho was for the last three years.

[00:35:52] Alice Lema: Wow. Wow. So that's just so interesting. And then the people that moved here or are moving here, they're doing the same Google like list thing, and then they're picking Oregon.

[00:36:03] Chad Guthrie: Yeah, and I think it might be due to proximity. I could be wrong, but you know, no one really wants to pack up and go 2000 miles, but people seem more comfortable going, you know, 700 miles. So that would be from, you know, California, Washington, maybe, you know, I've had people from most people from here that I had earlier in the year, going to Idaho.

[00:36:24] They've already made that transition, but Idaho, I heard passed us value-wise where they were always trailing.

[00:36:33] Alice Lema: Yeah, well, the data collecting and, and usage of data to choose where you go is so new, it's such a new phenomenon. It's it's just so interesting. So how, how has the situation for you with the multiple offer stuff going on in your area? Do you still have a lot of that?

[00:36:51] Chad Guthrie: Not as much, I believe the last one I did with you, or maybe the one right before that it was very hectic and I felt very bad for buyers.

[00:36:58] And it was tough on sellers as well because they're like, okay, what do we do? And there's no for sure crystal ball answers. So navigating with other agents and keeping our clients educated, informed seemed to be the key to like a smooth landing, which is easier said than done at times.

[00:37:15] Alice Lema: It's rough. And we don't have as many down here as we did. And you know, the buyers are pushing back. We got a highest and best notice this week on one of our offers and the buyers pulled out. They said, we're not playing that game. Are you having any of that up there?

[00:37:30] Chad Guthrie: Ironically. Yes. Well, okay. I have one, but it's not over here. It's in Jackson county. It's in your neck of the woods. Yeah. So it got, we had a, they had a buyer, they had a backup and then we came in back up and then it just got a little squirrely. So we pitched a non-emotional buying thoughts. So we're going to meet again today at 12.

[00:37:51] Alice Lema: Okay. Well, I hope you win. Go, go Chad. Chad got three. John L. Scott up in Jackson county with the eight seconds we have left any predictions for 2022.

[00:38:02] Chad Guthrie: Oh, I have a lot of hopes. I hope it's very smooth and it's good for both buyers and sellers so they can move if they would like.

[00:38:07] Alice Lema: And more inventory would help, right?

[00:38:09] Chad Guthrie: Yeah. That would help. It would help us out a little bit.

[00:38:11] Alice Lema: Okay. Chad Guthrie, John L. Scott Grants Pass. What's your number if people want to talk about.

[00:38:15] Chad Guthrie: (541)944-6476.

[00:38:20] Alice Lema: Great. Well, that's a wrap up for today. Folks. Listen to us again next week. Talk to you later. Have a great weekend. Bye now.