Bisendra Melaram: [00:00:00] 

Welcome back castle dwellers to another episode of Keys to The Castle. Today we have a powerful panel to navigate the latest update in the New York real estate landscape. Returning guest, Brigitte Malik, Home Inspector Extraordinaire from Inspection Boys, joining our resident experts, Attorney Jason Kleiger and Mortgage Maestro Jason Marcus.

Heck yeah. Hola. 

Jason Marcus: Oh great. Welcome 

Bisendra Melaram: back Brigitte. 

Brigitte Malik: What up, what up? Super excited to be 

Bisendra Melaram: here. I don't know if that excitement is going to hold. We're coming for you today. Nervous now. Yeah, today we're going to dive into part two of the Property Condition Disclosure Act changes in New York. And our last episode we spoke very highly and we were like, man, we need Brigitte here.

So here we are. 

Brigitte Malik: Yeah, it's a big 

Bisendra Melaram: one. Yeah, it's one of those things that everyone wishes it didn't happen professionally. I wish they would have just upped the amount from 500 to 1, [00:01:00] 000 and called it a day. So everyone would have won, because normally what would have happened is, Outside of the 500, what is it?

Credit. It's a credit. Right, so the credit basically compensated for anything that would have shown up the week after. And normally that would have been, in my experience, an appliance breaking. Right, well, 

Jason Kleiger: that happens, you know. At con at deed handover if anything happens after that then you know, it's on the new buyer Sorry, you know, I had my boiler go The weekend I bought my house 

Brigitte Malik: And it's happened We've we've been oh, yeah, we spoke about that.

Yeah, we've been contacted already different times. No, no No, just in general people buy their house and then soon after they move in something breaks Right. And who would they call? 

Bisendra Melaram: They'd call you, because how come you didn't see that it was going to break? Yep. All the time. Mmm. I would just say, 

Jason Marcus: welcome to homeownership.

Exactly. Same thing, hot water heater within a week. Just fucked [00:02:00] up, and I paid for it, because it's like, who's, can't be the inspector's fault. 

Brigitte Malik: There's no way to know when something like this is just going to stop. And, I mean, look, just recently we had all that rain, and then snow. What happened with all the snow on people's roofs?

If you had a leak and it started 

Bisendra Melaram: melting, everyone was complaining about flooding in their basement. Yep, yep. Everyone that normally would not have complained in the years past, because it's now in the past. Everyone's like, I got water in my basement. What do I do, ? Yep. You clean it up. Yeah. I don't know.

Get the mop out. Get the mop out. Home. Ownership sucks sometimes. It does. It does. Alright, so let's get into this. The disclosures and what it's required. I'm like, I'm ready. So I brought paper copy. Okay, You're actually prepared, which is fantastic. So, the old disclosure had 46 questions, right? 

Brigitte Malik: I will tell you right now.

48, 49, no, 

Bisendra Melaram: 48, 48. 48, and the new one has [00:03:00] 56. So we're not going to go line item by line item, because that's just going to take us forever and Mr. Kleiger gets, he builds by the hour, right? Oh, yes. So, it's a significant change, So, we've already went over the downside of it, 

Jason Marcus: right? I could definitely speak on that.

Right. We have done 

Bisendra Melaram: that. Yeah, so it actually bled over into this episode, which is good for us that Brigitte was here, So, I have a note here and all it says is lawsuits, right? So, and this is lawsuits from buyers who encounter undisclosed problems. Okay, so Brigitte, you and I spoke briefly before the recording started and we're talking about sellers doing pre listing inspections.

Outside of a financial benefit to your company. It's a huge financial benefit. Right, so outside of that, we're not, right, because you're going to do two inspections, right? [00:04:00] So, what do you think a seller can alleviate by having the pre inspection 

Brigitte Malik: done? So, I think there's going to be a ton of unknowns that are about to happen that none of us even know the answers to.

Um, the pre listing inspection, in my opinion, is going to help relief the seller from a lawsuit seven, for the next seven years, right? Because if there is something really indeed, so here's the biggest thing. You buy a house, seller fills out this new disclosure form, right? And to their knowledge, they think that they put everything in there.

And now buyer has an issue and they're trying to fight saying, no, you didn't, you knew about this. Right. So how do you prove that the seller didn't know? Pre sale inspection. The pre listing inspection helps alleviate that a little bit. Not saying that it takes it all off completely, because sellers could hide things or things like that, or they could just make something seem like it never [00:05:00] existed, but it helps take away that much more liability from 

Bisendra Melaram: them.

Okay, that makes sense. So, Mr. Kleiger, I see you itching already. This is a big topic. Yeah, no, no, no, no, no. So he knows I'm coming for him next. He knows I'm coming for him next. So I take a listing, Brigitte Inspection Boys comes and does the pre listing inspection. The seller then fills out the new property condition disclosure statement.

Brigitte Malik: Can I just add the state has not updated the form online 

Bisendra Melaram: yet? Yeah, I, we checked moments before recording this and it's still not updated, but we know it's coming because everyone keeps saying March 20th, 2024, March 20th, 2024. So no one really knows what is going to be on there except the 500 credit is gone permanently.

So back to the question, Mr. Kleiger, Brigitte did listing happen, Brigitte did pre listing inspection. The seller now has a blank PCDS, which they have to give to you before signing of contract. [00:06:00] That's the way I've read it and understood it. So now you have this, what happens now? Let me give you, let me give you an example.

I'm sorry, I don't mean to laugh, but you turned instantly red. Because there's so many 

Jason Kleiger: problems that can arise. And, you know, you can be the most thorough inspector and still not find 

Jason Marcus: something. For example, a buried oil tank. You're not going to find that. No. Unless you have 

Jason Kleiger: like a, you know, if you're digging up their yard and everything.

And there are ways to legally and properly bury an oil tank. And then there are ways to not. And also, when you're buying a house, and let's say you bought that house, and you have, you know, No, no, the seller didn't disclose that they buried an oil tank improperly. And now there's an oil leak and it's seeping into the ground.

And when that's discovered, you have to get the DEC involved. New York state comes down and they have to, you know, visualize and inspect and everything 

Bisendra Melaram: like that. It's an environmental issue. [00:07:00] It is. Oh, soil samples out the wazoo. Oh, very expensive too. Yep. You got to get a 

Jason Kleiger: backhoe there and you just dig and dig and dig.

That 

Jason Marcus: wouldn't come up in title. No, it won't be on the Time 

Jason Kleiger: Report. No, because, you know, especially on Long Island, you have some of these houses that have been on oil for so long 

Bisendra Melaram: and then they transition 

Brigitte Malik: to gas. That's considered a phase one inspection, which is a completely different industry. 

Bisendra Melaram: Yeah, that's commercial stuff.

Oh yeah, they do that for gas stations. Yeah, 

Jason Kleiger: so let's say, you know, you bought a house from a seller who maybe they even bought that house from a seller who buried the oil tank improperly. So now you have essentially two owners in that chain who never knew about this buried oil tank. Now, let's say you want to put it in an in ground pool, okay?

So, these are the problems and what is that buyer going to do? What's their remedy? And is this, you know, the change to the Property Condition Disclosure Act, is this going to give? that buyer a remedy now? Can he go after the person who sold [00:08:00] him the house? Mmm. So, I mean, these are just issues that you can be the most prudent and, and, uh, thorough inspector.

You can be the most, you know, understanding homeowner and know what issues may or may not arise when you buy a house. But at the end of the day, things like that will happen and Who's going to, you know, people are going to say alright, well, who's going to pay for this? And they're going to go after the sellers, and they're going to go after the agents, and they're going to go after the inspectors, and they're going to go after the lawyers.

And 

Bisendra Melaram: they sue everybody. Except the 

Jason Marcus: bank. Finally! Finally! Notice I left that out. Except the bank. He was itching for that. I was. I was dying. I was like, no, nobody's coming after me. He was 

Bisendra Melaram: like, no, I just gave them the money. 

Brigitte Malik: And I think the question arises, How do you prove the seller actually knew 

Bisendra Melaram: Yeah, we've been deliberating that for the past week and 

Brigitte Malik: a half so I just did my pavers this past spring Right did a whole [00:09:00] new brand new backyard beautiful as they were digging to like Take dirt out to make everything leveled.

You know what they found in my, in my backyard and I live in Lindenhurst. Oh, please don't say that. Live in Lindenhurst, right? I'm on public sewer and one of the guys is digging and then all of a sudden Cesspool? The ground starts caving in, there's a cesspool there, right? Now Lindenhurst is public sewer.

Mm hmm. I don't know when that started, but it's been there a long time. cesspool didn't even have a cover on it Didn't even have a cover. So imagine prior to doing this me and my daughter my husband. We're all running around over there So How do I does did the seller know about that? I don't know. I doubt it Are they original owner when did that get out?

There's so many variables that now come up That's 

Bisendra Melaram: a good point. Yeah, 

Jason Marcus: there's no possible way. Yeah, you're gonna know if they knew it's right. Yeah, but somebody did at some point Obviously, you know you [00:10:00] flushing your toilet in the house prior to sewer it's going 

Bisendra Melaram: somewhere right? Oh So I guess it could be Could have cause if it was a written you purchased from an original owner 

Brigitte Malik: Exemptions to the law, right?

Bisendra Melaram: Yeah, but what about something 

Jason Kleiger: that you should have known that they should have known that something that was so blatant About 

Bisendra Melaram: your property. Yeah, but you should have known. It's always been wiring. How are you gonna tell, wiring that's been in there? 

Brigitte Malik: Well, you won't know unless they open up the walls and know like, oh yeah, that outlet right there has aluminum wiring, 1000%.

Bisendra Melaram: Yeah, so that brings me to a point that we spoke about last week. So there's been a new group of DIYers influenced by all this DIY TV, reality television. I'm gonna fix and flip this puppy. Yeah. Okay. So now they start breaking stuff that they have, they don't know the structural integrity of walls because they're not engineers or architects.

They just like, Oh, this room needs to be opened. Let me open this [00:11:00] wall. Right. And they start finding. Let's just call it a nest of God knows what right and they're like, oh, but is that wire supposed to look like that? That was not supposed to be there and then it starts like a whole New ball of wax 

Brigitte Malik: that I do think this would be actually really good accountability for flippers 

Bisendra Melaram: Right.

Well, they're accountable, right? They can actually Confidently fill out any property condition. No, I think the 

Brigitte Malik: bad flippers Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, they don't last long anyway. No, but we just did, uh, we looked at a house a few weeks ago. It's like a, a great area, right? So every time, every, I tell agents like, Hey, if you see a house like this, let me know.

Cause then that could be like the potential house that I want. Right. So an agent sent it to me, went there and, um, huge piece of land, walk in and the investor or flipper ran out of money. Right. So the whole house is gutted. And they took down load bearing walls and didn't re support things. [00:12:00] Then, they gutted the house, but then all of a sudden you see them trying to put up sheetrock to hide different things.

And I'm like, alright, so flippers like this, I think this law makes sense. This disclosure, I should say, this makes sense then because now they're held accountable later on. Right. Right, because they're trying to blatantly hide things and not disclose of it, so. Do you get what I'm saying? I 

Bisendra Melaram: completely understand, and to Mr.

Kleiger's point, the bad flippers will go away. Because they're going to be on the hook. Dude, you can't play, you can't play both sides. He's about to play both sides. It's like 

Jason Marcus: unbelievable, it's like I want to knock him off the fence. What do you think? Such a lawyer. Yeah, sorry. 

Jason Kleiger: I mean, look, look, you know, most um, Flippers are LLCs.

I think almost all are LLCs. So having an LLC fill this out. Okay They're gonna close up shop or even if they still exist. What what are their assets? So I yes, I do believe that you know, this would help [00:13:00] in shoddy flipping and you know, just shoddy workmanship, but at the same time You know, you're having an LLC do this.

Now, LLCs can be, you know, you can pierce the veil of an LLC for certain things. Um, what that means is basically, uh, you know, the LLC protects the, the owners so that if someone gets sued, it's usually just the LLC and your private personal assets are not, you know, subject to, uh, putting a lien or a judgment.

Um, so, if they engage in fraud or fraudulent conduct That can certainly pierce the corporate veil though, so you do have that possibility because if they fill this out either fraudulent You know if they fill us out fraudulently and they knew of something and and believe it or not in New York You can still sue someone for a latent defect in a house So something that the seller like even now with the 500 credit you could still sue someone and there's a cause of action if they Knew something and they took deliberate steps to [00:14:00] hide it and that that something was something major Okay, so there's still a cause of action for that, but again, you're an LLC seller.

You're going to have to pierce the corporate veil and, you know, who knows? Yeah, that 

Bisendra Melaram: costs money too. Yeah. 

Brigitte Malik: This is great having an attorney. Yeah. 

Bisendra Melaram: So that, that leads me into this part. This episode is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal or financial advice. Always consult with qualified professionals for specific guidance.

Yeah, you were saying Brigitte? I'm just 

Brigitte Malik: going along with the flow right now. I 

Jason Marcus: just stare at Jason the whole time. Just like in awe, like as if he's Will Ferrell in old school debating. Like that's what it looks like to me. It's like, it's amazing. What happened? I blacked out. Oh my goodness. How does he know all this stuff?

Okay, I've 

Jason Kleiger: seen it all. Well, no. I mean, well. Kind of. Because, you know, for the length of time that I've been practicing. You really actually don't have to be practicing real estate law for that long to kind of see like all this stuff that happens. And you pick up on it. You don't even have to be a lawyer.

You [00:15:00] can just be in our realm. You know, we all have seen some 

Jason Marcus: stuff. Yeah, we see some stuff. Yeah, we see some 

Bisendra Melaram: stuff. But, knowing what I know, and the four of us sitting here, we all run our businesses. Very transparent. So this doesn't really affect us At all other than we're preparing ourselves to combat the bad apples and agents and agents 

Brigitte Malik: because so many agents Try to say no.

No, don't put that on the report. 

Bisendra Melaram: Oh, no, no, thank so listen The report is not mine. It's not my signature on it I'm not the one taking the photo your job and the reason I advocate Call a good home inspector is because I want you to confidently enter your home after you purchase it and send me referrals.

Right? Let's be real . No, because I know that I did a good job and the best job for you, right? So I want you to be able to, to live in there happily and not have to [00:16:00] worry about anything. And if the one thing that will make you, that will guarantee that that happens is a home inspection. And why I say that is because I've done it.

Yeah. A lot of agents can't say they've ever owned property and I'm not going to knock anybody, right? But I fully believe Practice what you preach Right, if you're selling real estate, you should figure out how you need to buy your first home Or else you cannot counsel someone into doing the same thing So home inspection is my my number one thing.

I 

Jason Kleiger: mean, you know, I've worked in firms where we will have them sign a CYA or a cover your rear end letter if they don't get an inspection. We will ask them Did you get an inspection? And if they say no, we will then implore them to do so and To us it's so important You know for us as well for our own liability as attorneys that we Make sure that our clients get an inspection, you know, like I said, [00:17:00] it could come back to us It'll come back to the inspector or well, if they didn't get inspected, it'll come back to us Um, so yes, uh, you know, 

Bisendra Melaram: it's that important.

Brigitte Malik: I love that you guys do that. Usually we're the crazy ones that are always like, okay. Nope. You know, like, I love 

Bisendra Melaram: that. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, I got the question of the hour for Brigitte right now. Oh god. So let me clear my throat. Okay, so one of the questions, the new questions is Radon. Oh. Okay. I have 

Brigitte Malik: not, I have not caught up on Radon yet.

Right. There's something big that's brewing. Oh. And I have, uh, Somebody who represent home inspections or home inspectors at the state level as like a lobbyist. 

Bisendra Melaram: So you guys are going to combat it. Yeah. You're going up against it. Yeah. Okay. So I don't, I 

Brigitte Malik: don't know any updates 

Bisendra Melaram: yet. Okay. So we're going to talk downstate because Mr.

Marcus is gonna be like we don't have that problem on Long Island. It's more actually 

Brigitte Malik: that's not completely true though 

Bisendra Melaram: [00:18:00] So 

Brigitte Malik: we've done a lot of Radon on in Long Island most the time nine times out of ten You'd be completely right probably even like nine and a half times out of ten But we've had maybe like four areas that have come up positive North Shore and You'll be surprised this next one Woodmere.

What? Yeah. We had one that came up positive in Woodmere. Wow. Yeah. From what? Just right on. So, it's caused from uranium. Yes. Yeah. It's caused from uranium. You don't know where there could be uranium. Right? So, one house could have it. The next house may not have it. So, we've had it Woodmere, Syosset, and then North Shore, like Huntington, those other areas.

Now, we've done plenty more in those areas, and they all came back negative, but we had a few pockets full of it. 

Jason Marcus: Very interesting. Yep. I'm dumbfounded right now. You just don't know where those glaciers are gonna drop things Formation you learn everything on this 

Brigitte Malik: State I'm always telling [00:19:00] people Radon Radon, Radon.

You need to do it. It's huge. Okay, 

Bisendra Melaram: so explain to us Because now I'm sideways What the process is to test for radon? 

Brigitte Malik: Okay, so currently, and I know that there's a big battle right now with radon and home inspectors, right? And from what I understand, they're trying to take it away from us to be able to do radon inspections.

Right? Completely 

Bisendra Melaram: separate. Completely separate. Outside 

Brigitte Malik: of home inspections. Yeah, so you don't technically need a license to do radon inspections if you're doing it with canisters. Right. Now, if you have that, there's, there's two ways to test it. You have monitors or canisters, right? So for Long Island, it's never been beneficial for us to actually invest in monitors.

Doesn't financially make sense for us. They're very expensive. We don't do enough of them. To do it. To make the investment. To validate. Yeah. If I was in Westchester, [00:20:00] Upstate, anywhere outside of the Bronx, I would invest in it all day, every day. I'd get my Radon license. And I would do the inspections and the mitigation.

Okay. I would do both. Because it's a huge business. I live in Suffolk. I ain't doing that. Yeah. Right? Um, so, what we do is we use canisters. It's charcoal canisters. And you have to leave it there for a minimum of 48 hours. up to a week. It's very similar to the monitor. So it's literally like a monitor and it's electronic and that still has to stay there.

And it starts to pick up the radon gases, right? Um, and then we send it to a lab. Now the monitors is just electronically, so you don't have to actually send it to a lab. Whereas we still have to send the canisters physically to a lab gets tested. It's very quick. Then we get the results and we read them and tell the client.

So the, the mini, the, the. The monitors are a little bit quicker 'cause it's all electronic. So you get the ins, the results [00:21:00] instantly. Right. Whereas the canisters, we still have that extra step of sending it to a lab. 

Jason Marcus: How often do you actually test? 

Brigitte Malik: Well, once you have it, you once, once your house tests is positive, you, the uranium's not moving.

So you even if, if it's positive enough, like high enough levels, then you install a mitigation system. The mitigation system takes the area, usually if it's a basement, it's like, um, negative pressure, like two PVC pipes, so to speak. It's not exactly, so don't get like, oh, you left out this, you know, equipment.

I will not 

Jason Marcus: make you sign a disclosure, which will eventually be used against you in a court of law. 

Brigitte Malik: So it's like, it's like two PVC pipes that go into the foundation, underneath the foundation. And then the idea is those PVC pipes are then connected to a fan. The fan is outside of the house. Mm-Hmm.

usually above the roof line. And it causes a negative pressure so that it takes out the rain, the, the Radon, um, the gas from underneath the house and expels it into the air. So it's fascinating. Mm-Hmm. . Yeah. And [00:22:00] then you retest and you just wanna make sure that the radon levels are not acceptable. Radon cau is a sec second leading to lung cancer, and people don't realize that.

It causes cancer and it's everywhere in the United States. 

Jason Marcus: Are you testing this on every inspection? How does that 

Brigitte Malik: work? West, if I was, if I was in Westchester, I would absolutely do it on every single house. 

Jason Marcus: But right now it's just basically, hey, I want you to test for this, okay, we'll test for it type of thing?

Right, 

Brigitte Malik: exactly. I do not actively upsell it. Yeah, that's crazy. I don't actively, and it's not, and every once in a while there's a map that the EPA has and they show like the different hot pockets of it. Long Island's very low, but you gotta remember it's, it's based upon wherever They tested. So if they chose a hundred houses and only one showed up positive, it's 

Bisendra Melaram: Yeah.

Sample size is small. Right, right. Wow. I'm really concerned about this radon thing now. 

Brigitte Malik: Not really. I did test my own house for radon when I bought it, just because I'm freaking crazy. No, 

Jason Marcus: I mean, if you have the, like the ability to do it, do it. 

Bisendra Melaram: [00:23:00] Yeah. So I'm not really worried about it, only because. Prior to becoming a licensed agent.

I work for an environmental engineering company that did air quality test Okay, so it's not it's not something's really crazy. So I'm looking online right now and a home right on detectors 90 bucks Yeah, they're not that crazy. Yeah, it's completely separate from your normal combination thing when we spoke about it the last episode I was just remembering about I was like wait, they sell those things for your house.

Yeah You know, I'm pretty sure people in Westchester have them, but 

Brigitte Malik: Yeah, the, the once, the mitigation system, the install one, it's always actively running. The fan's always on. There's a little thing that, um, it's like, I forget what that's called, but it's pretty much making sure that the air is working, that the, is, it's Oh, the sensor?

Right. Okay. And then if it stops, there's like, some of them have like an alarm and stuff like that. Because once it stops Oh, that's radon's just gonna come right back into your house, you know? So usually the lowest level of the floor would have the highest amount 

Bisendra Melaram: of radon. Yeah, it's crazy 'cause in Florida they have them going up several [00:24:00] stories.

Yeah. 

Brigitte Malik: Yeah. So we don't the high do the radon in Florida 

Bisendra Melaram: in like Yeah. It's nuts. 

Brigitte Malik: Yeah. You ra Florida's heavily regulated so I don't touch radon in Florida right 

Bisendra Melaram: now. Oh. They, when? So the units that I sold, the building management actually put the test in there and had it run for. About a week and then they came in they're like, oh, you don't have it But we're gonna put this alarm system in and it was actually ducted in to the HVAC Wow, but the thing makes a crazy noise why is it humming?

Yeah That's crazy

Jason Marcus: Thought you're about to make a humming noise. 

Bisendra Melaram: No, no, there's enough It's okay, you don't have to be super quiet, Kleiger. You 

Jason Marcus: don't have to try to sneak out, just say you're 

Bisendra Melaram: leaving. Sayonara, nice seeing you. Don't worry, you know what, it's okay. We got a master editor, you're good. Okay. Alright, so outside of the radon thing, because that was the biggest issue that I saw, because it's not normal on Long Island where I practice 80 percent of it.

what else do you [00:25:00] see? Just very surface level because I know it's still like Mr. Kleiger said is very fluid. So is there anything that buyers or sellers should be careful filling out. 

Brigitte Malik: So the buyers need to know this does not, like if the seller is doing a pre listing inspection does not, does not replace the home inspection.

Because the pre, the pre listing inspection the seller is not obligated to give this report to the buyers. That doesn't change. The sellers just have to fill this out to the best of their knowledge. Right. Right? And then the home inspection helps them fill this in even more. Like, how many times do sellers not know when something's leaking?

Bisendra Melaram: Right. It increases the accuracy. I agree wholeheartedly. 

Brigitte Malik: But the buyers should still get a separate inspection and still know for their own two cents what's happening with the house and anything that they need to do updates on. Um, there's also the mold disclosure. And people are not talking about the mold disclosure right now.

Bisendra Melaram: So no, we're about to talk about it right 

Brigitte Malik: now. So, pretty much the mold disclosure is, [00:26:00] if your house has ever been, had mold, been treated for mold, you must now sign that disclosure now too. Which, I feel like, why hasn't that happened? Why, why is it just not happening now? Why is it only now a thing? I, I have no idea.

You'll have to state. It's I think it's so important because so many houses we do People have had mold have not done anything The attics have mold like you can't tell me all your Christmas stuff is in the attic and you don't see all this mold 

Bisendra Melaram: Wait a second that one is to affect June 14th of 2023.

Yeah. Yeah That's crazy. Yep. It's part of disclosures now

What it says at any time 

Brigitte Malik: Actually, the amount of mold inspections we've been doing have gone up. Mm 

Bisendra Melaram: hmm. So how do you test for mold during an inspection? Is that something separate that needs to be checked off or asked for? Like, hey, Brigitte, 

Brigitte Malik: can you have the inspection boys? It's a separate inspection.

Yep, it's not included in the home inspection. It's actually a separate license for the state of New [00:27:00] York. So the state of New York says, We cannot inspect or we cannot say something is mold unless we have an assessor's license. So when I'm doing a home inspection, if I see something that looks like mold, I'm not going to call it as mold if I'm using my home inspection license.

Why? Cause I'm not, that's putting me up for liability. So unless they say, Hey, look, I recommend you get the mold inspection. I'm pretty much telling you like you need to do it. Right? I can't force you to do it, because then once I add that service on, it's a completely separate contract, and now I'm using my license as a mold assessor.

Jason Marcus: What do you, what do you, uh, call it as a home inspector? What do you 

Brigitte Malik: say? Microbacterial growth, or discoloration, um, things like that. Efflorescence, a lot of people just think, oh yeah, it's just efflorescence. You're right, but efflorescence is an early form of mold, too. That's just indicating moisture. You know, so [00:28:00] those are the things and we, so then we can add it on and then now once we're using our assessor's license, we can talk about it freely.

It, it doesn't make any sense, but this is just what the state wants, you 

Bisendra Melaram: know? And the state gets what the state wants. Yeah. Or else we can't do what we need to do. Wow. Indoor mold has been referred to as killer mold. What the hell? Well, we know that. 

Brigitte Malik: Well, it's very dangerous. I mean, I've done mold assessments where, and I'm, and my husband swears to me, like, no, my husband made me swear, I said that wrong, that I'm starting to be more careful because when I do a mold assessment, half the time I'm not even walking in with a mask.

And I just walk in, well, I made that mistake one time walked in and I started getting very sick, like within a minute or two, my head, all of a sudden, like, it felt like a migraine. All of a sudden I couldn't breathe. I felt like my chest was getting hard to breathe, right? [00:29:00] Like everything. I was like, man, I'm getting sick.

My, my, I got a sore throat. Right. Um, and then when I, when the mold testing came back, the entire place was filled with,

So I'm like, okay, well, there you go. No wonder why I started feeling sick so instantly. And they had a major mold issue there. 

Bisendra Melaram: What the hell? So wait, you said mask. So you're not wearing. Mm. Yeah. Like a medical mask or an N95. You're wearing a respirator, right? That's what you're talking about? Yeah. 

Brigitte Malik: Oh, if I'm a good girl.

Bisendra Melaram: Oh, okay. Just say yes. Just say yes. Yes. I'm wearing a respirator. 

Jason Marcus: Okay. Try not to get her in trouble with her husband. No, no, 

Bisendra Melaram: no. She's good. Yeah, yeah, yeah. , especially after that scare, she's like, yeah, never again. Yeah. Um, so I'm trying to think, so we spoke, you weren't here, Brigitte, but we were talking about escrows and Mr.

Marcus said. [00:30:00] refresh us Mr. Marcus, we were talking about escrows and you said that it's one and a half times, right? So in the case that Brigitte or inspection boys or any home inspector goes in and does a pre listing inspection, everything's disclosed, but now the appraisal comes back with a notation.

Let's just ride this train a little bit. And 

Jason Marcus: they're going to probably do the same thing because they're not experts. So they have to use that type of language, which is what's going to prompt. And I, in that particular case, there is no way. The bank's gonna hold escrow like that's like a level of like, no, this needs to be identified like, and that's when a mold inspector is going to have to come in and give us, they're going to force a report on us.

They won't hold escrow on that, 

Bisendra Melaram: right? So that means it will not 

Jason Marcus: close. No, it's not that not for something like that. Like that's A different level of, you know, remember what I said, what these appraisers are doing sounds sound and sight inspections. And even though they can't identify it, like they'll give us at least enough inclination where it's like [00:31:00] another step is going to be necessary in this process before we're going to let you close on this because that's detrimental to the well being.

And again, you all of a sudden, we're going to let a family with little kids move in. And then what Brigitte was saying about those types of reactions. And now I mean just as human beings we shouldn't allow that and of course the banking world doesn't. Well, I 

Brigitte Malik: want to add that job I was talking about, I did not see mold anywhere.

What? It was nowhere to be 

Bisendra Melaram: seen. So it was in the 

Brigitte Malik: wall then? It was in the walls. And it was in the HVAC. And you could not, like, I was looking, the only place I saw mold was in the tile in the bathroom. Which is normal. That's normal. Like when you take a shower, you see it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, the grout lines in.

Right. Nowhere to be found. So, and that's how I started feeling sick. So that's telling me the spores were everywhere and the results showed that. Now I got a question for you once, cause I don't know this process. Once an appraiser. Sends the report back does does the the [00:32:00] bank's underwriter look at it, too.

Oh, of course. Yeah, okay 

Jason Marcus: Yeah, it has to be like the appraisal has to be completely Ripped through and sometimes just like you get those from that agent where it's like, oh, please don't put this type of thing Like a lot of times we're sitting there very hopeful that that and because it can go either way there's sometimes where the appraisers going over the top where it's like this is clearly a Not mold and it's like oh my gosh You just did that and now we're like you're gonna send them through and then it goes to that level where it's like all of a Sudden money's being spent on it where it's like this clearly isn't but again It's like it's easy for me to say I have a vested interest I want to get this done the real estate agents are on you know This side where they're like no, this has got to be done.

These people are idiots and it's like well They're gonna always err on the side of caution with these types of things and it always makes me laugh because you're in this position Where people are [00:33:00] spending Exorbitant amount of money. Mm hmm to buy these houses to get in it and it's like this is the corner You're gonna try to cut right?

This is the corner right where it's like you got a one year old and you're gonna like sit there and cut the corner on the Inspection or the mold inspection like this is where you're gonna draw that line And it it doesn't escape me on my side where I see these types of conversations where it's like Guys, like just don't get Netflix, you know, like cancel a subscription, like get a mold inspection, please.

Well, you know, 

Brigitte Malik: what's funny too, is you brought up a great point. Sometimes during, and this is, this is one of my pet peeves. Um, Is the real estate agent will deter the buyer from getting these, these ancillary inspections, right? And we just had a situation not too long ago. Buyer calls us about a year later.

And they're like, you didn't tell us there was mold in the basement. Okay, we pull up the report. We take a [00:34:00] look and we wrote in the summary page, there was microbacterial growth. And we recommended they get a mold inspection, right? Turns out. Who was the one to turn, like, influencing them to not do it. No way.

Yep. Because the real estate agent was like, no, that's going to add too much time. We have to get to the closing table right away. Yeah, but you're already there. And we gotta sign contracts. We gotta do this. We 

Bisendra Melaram: gotta do that. takes you another day to schedule. 

Jason Marcus: Yep. Now, mind you, in that case, we can almost bet dollars to donuts, oh man, I'm old, um, that there wasn't a buyer broker agreement.

Yeah, so like that opens up a whole lot of liability on the Realtor side. You're sitting there pushing and you're representing the seller and you're pushing the buyer not to have a mold inspection done when an inspection reports calling for micro bacteria. Like that is opening up a whole lot. And Oh my God.

Bisendra Melaram: That's like a whole different 

Jason Marcus: ball. Yeah. That's now we're talking about the representation, which I think, Oh, that's a whole [00:35:00] nother conversation trying to solve. Pieces of problems that I understand why they're trying to solve it and like a lot of it It's kind of going about it a little ass backwards because it's like I understand like what you're trying to protect But it's like I don't understand the avenues you're taking to do the protection.

Bisendra Melaram: Well, we're not gonna get Oh, I don't want to do this This is a whole other one I really don't want to do this I 

Brigitte Malik: will be doing a class about buyer broker Like buyer broker 

Bisendra Melaram: representation So the end That's good because, let's just say new agents, okay? But it's not It's not just new agents though. They do not understand agency.

Yeah. What they understand is percentages as it equates to commissions. Right. Okay. So, The average consumer does not understand that when they call on that internet listing, I'm not going [00:36:00] to mention any sites, that the agent they are getting is not necessarily the listing agent, or they are getting the listing agent who does not represent their best interests because that person has a signed fiduciary.

Which means to the seller to the seller that means they have to do everything in their power to protect the seller right cut and dry That's really what it is 

Brigitte Malik: Yeah, they can't even disclose like they have any conversation. They have there's technically supposed to disclose it to the seller, correct? 

Bisendra Melaram: and all you does all you will get as a buyer with it a sellers agent is a Fair treatment, right?

That's how it's written right fair treatment So, oh my god, this is going in my mind. Oh, it's 

Brigitte Malik: gonna be an interesting Only 

Bisendra Melaram: because of all the recent litigation that we're gonna get into later on But in a different episode because it's just way too much to handle right now only [00:37:00] because the recent litigation that's happening 

Brigitte Malik: It's not even finalized yet.

It's not made a decision and now NAR is still appealing 

Bisendra Melaram: it, right? so What did it, where does that leave buyers, agents? I mean, I know where it leads me and I'm not worried about it because I'm 90 percent a seller's agent unless I know, right? Even if I was a buyer's agent and we don't want to go too far into this conversation We're gonna stick on topic but a lot of agents will no longer represent buyers 

Brigitte Malik: Which is a that's a travesty because buyers are gonna be at a big disadvantage now, and I don't know Okay mortgage side Can they include the commissions in the mortgage?

Jason Marcus: I mean you have your seller's concession rules and you can't exceed Depending on what your type of product that you're doing so like even in your best cases where you're up to six percent on FHA or More than ten percent down on conventional It's not covering based on these numbers that we're doing and now if you're going to put the onus This is why I [00:38:00] earlier I said where the state is identifying the problem correctly, but they're trying to come up with a solution that in my opinion doesn't make sense.

I think the real estate agent should always have buyer broker if they're representing the buyer, but I find no problem with all commissions being split from the seller and they're trying to change that. But the problem with doing that is if we start to try to get. The buyer to pay for now their agent's commission on top of the insane amount that closing costs in our state is It's, it's just getting to a point where you're just, you're, you're squashing the American dream based on logistics.

And, to me, the representation's the important part. It's not who is paying for what where. The commission's the commission and everybody's getting paid. So that's where I feel like This is kind of a good thing, and then the other side where they're arguing, like, the commissions and [00:39:00] who it's being paid for, I think is a bad thing, but I do believe that the buyer should be represented by an agent where the seller's agent has to either do dual agency in that case, if they're holding both sides of it, or you have very distinct lines for real estate agents representing one on the seller's side, one on the buyer's side.

And I 

Brigitte Malik: will say this, dual agency is a very gray line in my opinion. It is. Very, 

Bisendra Melaram: 110%, a hundred percent. I mean, I could play devil's advocate, but I don't wanna walk that line because I do not run my practice that way, right? So when I say I'm a seller's agent, I'm a seller's agent. If you want representation, there's some great agents in my office, right?

Ask a family friend, right? I do it all the time, and people are besides themselves, they're like, Bisendra, why would you throw that away? I'm not throwing anything away. I wholeheartedly want everyone to generate wealth through home ownership. Right. Wholeheartedly. So, if the best representation you [00:40:00] can find is outside of me, please, by all means, go do that.

Ask for referrals, recommendations from family, friends. You know, like, go on, you know, I was about to say go on Facebook, but don't do that. No, don't. Don't do that, because All the keyboard warriors will come for me. so that's the only way you're going to get, I don't want to say honest, but you will get the best representation because they are outside of the seller's scope.

Right? So anyway, that takes us back to where we started, which is the agent was most likely a seller's agent and not a buyer's agent is why. I cannot actually understand why they would. Tell them don't get a test done. They're not paying one? Mold? Mold, yeah. Like, I don't understand. Sorry, had to go back.

Mold, radon, any supplemental or add on test. If it's available, there's a reason it's available for that area. Well, people 

Brigitte Malik: don't get it, right? Like, I don't know what it is, but I [00:41:00] feel like agents don't listen. I just had a discussion the other day with an agent and I'm just like, listen, they were like, it wasn't, I don't like saying argue cause I don't like to argue this conversation.

Right. But it was a conversation. And, um, and I'm like, you have to understand from like our point of view, you're asking me to do something is against the law. Right. And You're stepping into my territory where this is what I do for a living. I don't step into your territory and tell you, Hey, this is how you need to run your real estate practice or you're doing this wrong with your license, whatever.

I don't know. Well, technically I do, but I don't get involved in that side. Right. I stay in my lane. Maybe territory is not the right, my lane. Right. Right. Stay in your lane. You're 

Bisendra Melaram: preaching to the choir because we had, we had this, we have the choir. Yeah. 

Brigitte Malik: Hey, wait, why, why isn't that FHA loan closing? Why there's a pain chipping like no it can still [00:42:00] close make it close like do you know 

Jason Marcus: what I mean?

I get it. I get it all the time and it's like Fortunately you get to a point where you're at where it's like we just don't care that that person like needs something to happen that's out of the realm of what we know is the right thing to do and the people that are gonna practice their businesses on in our side on the vendor side Like they're walking a very dangerous line and it really even crosses over into just regular business ethics And who we are as human beings and I'm just like I'm sorry.

I'm not sorry I I only care about the well being and protection of my client I never care about your Commission if that's gonna cost you As one of my referral partners, I cannot hit you fast enough with the door, 

Brigitte Malik: right? I actually have a do not inspect list for different people. Yeah, 

Bisendra Melaram: you know what? I'm not surprised actually.

Yeah, I'm not 

Jason Marcus: surprised even a little bit. No, 

Brigitte Malik: if there's some agents, as soon as I see their name, I tell [00:43:00] my office first off where you can overprice it by 500 and we're booked for the next two months. Yeah, 

Bisendra Melaram: that's it. Yeah, you don't have to be nasty about it. You just tell them straight up. This is business and the cost of me doing business for you is this, right?

There's nothing wrong with that. It's your business. But I completely agree with that because like we were talking about before the show started There's people that will basically Attempt to coerce you into doing things Outside of the scope of your license. My license, and we've said it, it's funny.

We're just going back to the other one. Is that my license is worth way more than whatever little thing you're worried about right now. And I've held it for so long. You think I'm going to jeopardize that for that? No, no, no. You got the wrong one today. Because that ain't me. I 

Brigitte Malik: have a family to provide for.

Bisendra Melaram: That's it. That's it. I'm too far into this career to even contemplate it. No, and I 

Brigitte Malik: hate to say this. I [00:44:00] don't want to be like, okay, we're bashing agents. It's just, you know, there's a lot of agents that I love, like trust, they're my friends. I don't mind getting drinks with them. I like being in their company.

It's just the bad ones that really just put a really nasty taste in my well, 

Bisendra Melaram: that's all industries I mean, I completely get you but it's all industries every industry has the bad ones and it makes The rest of us look bad, right? It's the truth. Yeah, and it really hurts my heart. Yeah I'm not I don't get angry about it anymore.

It really hurts my heart and all I can say Is they're just not trained correctly. 

Brigitte Malik: Okay, so. Go ahead, do it, do it. Alright, so now we're talking about training, right? Where does that start with? The schools, right? We have, I have a school, so I can talk freely about the school. You know, they recently updated the licensing requirements.

So they increased it from 75 [00:45:00] hours to 77 hours. Okay, and they talk about like added, they pretty much added implicit bias now, right? Okay. Okay. There's still not enough that we can talk about during school and Like do you know I mean like there's there's it's just not enough. 

Bisendra Melaram: So here's the thing. I don't think it's Should be solely rested on the shoulders of the school.

No, shouldn't Depending on the office, that should be what I call new agent up and running. This is what you need to conduct yourself correctly. 

Brigitte Malik: Right. I wish they would do something like that in the CEs. Yes. Where, hey, this is something that you need to do because, you know, you have your mandatory. Right?

The, the, the mandatory core that you have to do, but, um, once you get your license, most of the time, these agents or these, these brokerages sometimes avoid certain topics and don't want to talk about it. Well, 

Bisendra Melaram: [00:46:00] So you know why they do that is because the attendance rate or the signup rate is very low for things like that.

Yeah. And you, you could actually speak to this because you have, you know, Main Street Success, which is the real estate school, and the sign up will be very low. Right? People just want to get their CE credit and they want to get the most for their money. So they just want to do the bare minimum.

You're absolutely right 

Brigitte Malik: because I made a separate program that we have to pay like we have no not pay Agents pay us to attend some of these classes because it's I have to pay an instructor to teach these or specialty classes and right 

Bisendra Melaram: You have to file it with the state also, right? So people don't understand the dynamic of it, but I agree certain trainings need to be done But I I think a large percentage of it needs to rest on that of the brokerage Because that agent is now an extension of you, and you are technically responsible for that agent.

Jason Marcus: Yep. The one thing I like, and I gotta ask on the inspection, on the [00:47:00] inspection side, do you have to have X amount of time as an apprentice? No, not for the state of New York. See, that's where I feel like the appraisal side got it right. I feel like they're not getting it right in any of our industries.

Like, 

Brigitte Malik: I feel like It's very difficult now to become an appraiser. I, you know, like you have to go through the apprentice stage. 

Jason Marcus: And I think all of our industries are missing that. I feel like if you're going to get your mortgage license that you should have X amount of time serving under somebody to learn the ropes before you're allowed to originate.

Same thing on the inspecting side. Same thing on the agent side. I feel like if you really want to get to the root of it, that's how you can fix that 

Brigitte Malik: problem. So New York, the current licensing law for New York is a hundred. Classroom hours, so it's more than real estate, then 40 unpaid inspections. Whether it's with the school or mock inspect, we usually call them mock inspections and That's it.

So you you know who you know who my favorite people to [00:48:00] hire are 

Bisendra Melaram: I'm, really 

Brigitte Malik: curious now brand new inspector straight out of school. Yeah, because you I train them from the ground up. I get them all their mocks. I don't even, I don't even let an inspector do any type of inspection by themselves until they probably have maybe two or three hundred inspections underneath somebody.

So you're doing, like, 

Jason Marcus: you're technically doing 

Brigitte Malik: doing my own apprenticeship. Because that's the way to do it. Not everybody is me. And I don't mean this in a bad way. I promise you. But when I got my license, I literally spent four hours doing a one bedroom, one bathroom co op for hours. Yeah, that's craziness.

That's crazy. Right. But I was so freaking nervous. I didn't know what I was doing. You didn't want to miss anything. I didn't want to miss anything. So I was literally looking at every single thing, right? I had to figure it all out by myself and figure out how the hell am I going to do this? Right. And now that I have this company and I've grown it to where it is.

I'm not going to jeopardize my company for anybody. So [00:49:00] now I'm in the inspectors get mad. Like I've lost inspectors. I pay them. Like, it's not like they're not getting paid while they're doing all these inspections. It's a different pay structure, but, um, they get mad. They're like, Oh, I already know what I'm doing.

I already have X, Y, Z. I'm like, that's nice. You're not doing it to the standards I want yet. So until you're getting it to the standards I want, this is what it is. And I'm not letting you go. You know, until you do this, 

Bisendra Melaram: I can see that, you know, people who have been in the industry a little bit think they know it all like, 

Brigitte Malik: you know, I don't like hiring guys who are already inspectors and been inspecting.

I know I know don't get me wrong. I've hired like one or two. They've been they worked out But most of these guys are stuck in their weights and they don't want to listen to advice and home inspectors We're very unique breed. We were talking about breeds like human beings earlier home inspectors are very unique.

I am very ADHD I'm very OCD. There's a lot of things I do the same way at this You'll find a lot of home inspectors are the same way as me. Agents are the same 

Bisendra Melaram: way. Yeah. Agents are the same way. [00:50:00] There's agents that, even before here, onboarding an agent that had their license 2, 3, 4 years. Oh, we never did that.

Why do I need that? Yeah. because I said so. I mean, I can't coach someone that's not coachable, right? That's the whole thing. That's the perfect wording. That's the whole thing. Yeah. That's the whole thing. So you try to show them a better way. Let's, you know, let's not, I don't want to say the right way, but in my mind, it is the right way.

Right. Because there's a protocol to follow right and that's in your industry. That's all you do. That's all I do follow the protocol Mr. Marcus does the same thing Follow the protocol. There's steps and a method to this to get to the finish line. And if you do it correctly, it becomes very easy. And I find that when you don't follow the protocol, things get very difficult.

So 

Brigitte Malik: what's funny is I was talking to one of my inspectors earlier. It goes along with this a little bit. And I'm talking to him and I looked at one of his reports, right? He's been a very, he's a very good inspector. Love him. Great, and I looked [00:51:00] at his outlets, like just receptacle outlets, and I'm looking at his photos in the report I'm like, hmm.

I only see two pictures of outlets. I call him up. I'm like, hey, tell me your reasoning Why you only have two pictures? He goes, no, I still tested them all everywhere I could access, but I only put two pictures I didn't want it to be repetitive. I said, I don't care if you don't want it repetitive. I want it I'm like, the more pictures you show, I don't care if you have 10 outlet photos in the report.

If you show me a report with two outlet photos, verse 10, what's the client going to think? They're going to think, Oh wow, they really did over and beyond because there's 10 outlet photos. They must've really tested them all. Verse two. It's true. It's the perspective. 

Jason Marcus: It's right. Exactly. Perspective is huge in that situation.

And it's like, it's not a lot of effort. I mean, you're already there, right? Yeah, you're 

Brigitte Malik: already there. Take the photo. That's it. Just take the photo. I mean, he's testing them, right? He's testing them, but the the the pictures is what's protecting our butts. Yeah, 

Bisendra Melaram: well It's [00:52:00] you're protecting your butt and the person who paid you to do the inspection, 

Jason Marcus: right?

Right because and there's diligence It's like you're being like I like that concept. I'd rather Deal with people that are being over the top with things than are trying to even if it's it's the perception You said the exact right word perception is reality so if I'm looking at an inspection where one person gave me ten pictures of outlets and one person gave me two that Perspective is exactly right and you can't sit there and bank on the fact that yeah nine out of ten people might be like not even think twice about it, but it's that one person that's now Slightly disappointed or dissatisfied where it's like we could have avoided that with something that wasn't very time consuming.

So why aren't we going like go over the top as opposed to like trying to shortchange it? So we we take that practice on my team. Also, we make sure that we're discussing things and things because we'll get this a lot in the banking world. It's like, well, that person didn't ask so. [00:53:00] I don't need to explain it.

It's like, well, if you sat there and you get to the point where they ask, now it's like, why didn't that person tell me this? Why did I have to ask for it? And again, nine out of 10 times, it might not be a problem, but it's that one time where it's like, okay, that just gave an impression in somebody. And now you look like that you shortchange or you try to take a shortcut, which was unnecessary.

If you just practice. Doing things that is systematically always going a little bit over the top. It does leave an 

Bisendra Melaram: impression 

Brigitte Malik: It does you really did it you you you hit on the nail. Yeah, that's perfect. I love it 

Bisendra Melaram: So before I get back to Brigitte, I came prepared with something for you today Yes, and I couldn't ask you last week because Brigitte wasn't here So will this new change because we went over the escrows, right?

So we're not really concerned about the escrows because it's gonna be what it is [00:54:00] So will this cause lenders to be more cautious or Tighten up the restrictions on lending based on this disclosure and its findings Purely based on what is now known. No, it won't have an effect. That was too 

Jason Marcus: easy But it's not it just won't like because it's there's already the like it's everything in the banking world is just based on What the appraiser says so it's like at the end of the day It's like what they see or don't see we I'll sit there for my clients and I'll tell them hey, I have experience looking at inspection reports, but even that it's like Really, most of the time they're going to take the advice of the attorney that's who's writing the contract that's who's writing in the list of repairs like that's all part of it.

So it's like I might put eyes on one out of every 10 inspections just to look at it. But of course, you know, it's we it's mostly the same conversation. It's like, This is a reputable company, their [00:55:00] job is to find these things. If this report was completely clean, we know the inspector did a terrible job.

They're always going to find something welcome to Earth and Long Island. So it's like anything that I kind of give it's just just to reassure them that, hey, listen, like, pay attention to what they said. And anybody that's seen our inspection report, the inspector will give that level of urgency to anything that they find.

So it's like if this thing is a warning sign or a blaring red blinking light, they're going to point that out and I'm going to take their word for it. Like so at the end of the day, in my world, it shouldn't have any effect on if the seller knew about something or did it. And I think overall. It's not going to be the hugest deal.

Once again, it's going to be more of a J. Kleiger problem, uh, after the fact litigation. We're going to continue to do our jobs diligently, and like, life is going to go forward as it [00:56:00] always is, because we're diligent. So it's like, inspectors are going to find the issues, the client's going to have the option whether to deal with that, the bank is going to lean on the appraisal, and we'll continue to close loans.

I 

Brigitte Malik: agree with him. I don't think it's going to change any of that. Because, maybe if it's a, you're still going to deal with your typical VA issues, FHA issues, Those type of things. Otherwise, I, we don't send the report to the lenders. No. The only time they get it is if the client sends it to 

Bisendra Melaram: them. So here's the thing.

So with more information comes more questions. Yeah. Right. We see this from an agent's perspective daily. People on the internet, keyboard warriors, gotta love them. And I like it as a tool for education purposes, right? You want to educate yourself in the process? Fantastic. But what's going to happen now, you're presented with two new pieces of information.

Piece of information number one is the property condition disclosure signed by the seller. This is what I know. This is what I [00:57:00] don't know. And then we have Bridges inspection boys report that says these are the things that we found. And they're going to be like, okay, let's match them up. Right? Kleiger is going to be like, okay, but why?

And then he's going to look for anomalies. And then he's going to write his repair rider. I think 

Brigitte Malik: the attorney is going to start charging a lot more money now too. 

Bisendra Melaram: I think they're worth it. Yeah, I think they're worth 

Brigitte Malik: it. There's more work more paperwork I mean time is money at the end of the day. You don't do work for free.

You don't do work for free 

Bisendra Melaram: Like no and and that's why they charge what they charge because you know, he's not here to defend himself But his sole job is protection. Yeah. Yeah, right. His sole job is protection. So The two people that you should really shouldn't skip out on is the home inspection and your attorney I 

Brigitte Malik: actually do kind of like it though.

Bisendra Melaram: No, I'm not we're not against it. We're 

Brigitte Malik: not against it I think the buyers need more to help them and to protect them more and well the buyers have to be 

Bisendra Melaram: diligent themselves right, 

Brigitte Malik: but it's also like [00:58:00] Mr. Flipper has been getting away with doing shoddy work this whole time and not disclosing things well now Hopefully this will help that do I think there's a lot of gaps I absolutely I still think there's a ton of gaps even with this.

I think there's a lot of unknowns How do you prove they actually knew like you don't know you if I look at a roof There's no way I can tell. I don't care who you are. I will fight. I saw that 

Bisendra Melaram: in their roof leaks. Yeah. 

Brigitte Malik: And like, okay a roofer could come out and they'll say, oh no, that's been there five years.

Tell me how do you know that was there for five years? Yeah, there's no way. There's no way to know. There's no way to tell. No way. There's no way. So we're going to have dumb stuff like that. Yeah. So 

Bisendra Melaram: seven, seven years later, right. Right. Depending on the quality of the roof that was purchased. Roofs, the lifespan of a roof varies depending on the roof, the construction of the roof, and the materials used.

And yep, and who installed it. And the installer, right? Right. So there's a lot of variables at play. So, I don't know how this is going to play out in the future, [00:59:00] but I just want everyone to have a level of expectations, they're not buying a perfect property and things happen, and that's one of the joys of homeownership.

You know, and to be realistic in their 

Brigitte Malik: expectation. Let's see what happens in the next seven years. Yeah, 

Bisendra Melaram: So, from a seller's perspective, as a pre sale inspection, What are some things that you would recommend? I mean, at this point For them to address knowing what we know about this new disclosure coming out.

Other than to do one, right? Because, I'm definitely telling all my listings going forward. I would advise you to do a pre listing inspection. regardless of duration of ownership, just as a baseline. I've always done it, but now I'm going to do it a little 

Brigitte Malik: bit. Like push it a little bit more now.

It's not like, hey, I recommend you to do it, take it, leave it, whatever. Um, I think so obviously you're going to do the home inspection if the home inspection shows hey The water is [01:00:00] slow to go down. Mm hmm, right or it shows there's micro bacteria growth I think you need to do due diligence and act upon that.

All right waters going down. Maybe you need a sewer scope All right, there's micro bacteria. Okay, maybe do the mold inspection now, too You know what I mean? Like, I don't think you need to go nuts and tell the seller, Hey, you need to, you know, from the normal five, 600 home inspection, now all of a sudden you need to spend 1, 100.

I'm not saying to do that. But I think if certain things pop out, like, Hey, this could become an issue, then take that extra step just to protect yourself more 

Bisendra Melaram: so. Right. And that's where My train of thought is heading as a seller's agent listing agent. My duty is to protect my seller So thinking ahead, if they get the pre sale inspection done They can confidently fill out the property condition disclosure before submitting it for contract and they 

Brigitte Malik: can submit that too.

That's a right, 

Bisendra Melaram: right so that's where I'm going with this because I don't want anyone coming back for my seller, much less me, [01:01:00] right? So I'm gonna, that's where I'm gonna have them do that, and then submit it. So that we know, we fill this out based on the information found by our inspector. Right. 

Brigitte Malik: And, you know what I absolutely love about this a little bit too?

Most houses have had how many owners? If we think about it, 

Bisendra Melaram: minimum four, 

Brigitte Malik: minimum four, right? So if a home inspector, you got to remember now, another thing, that's one extra level of protection is the home inspection companies. Agreement. Their licensing agreement. Oh, yeah. We didn't get to talk about that.

You know, the pre, the, the pre, the, uh, what is it called? Agreement. You know, the higher home inspector. Yes. You have the home inspection agreement. I don't know why I can't get my words out. That's covering them even more so because the home inspector still has limitations. Right. Right. The home inspector is blatantly saying to you, they cannot see through walls.

If there's aluminum wiring behind those walls, They're not telling you about it because they don't know right so therefore Did the seller know [01:02:00] probably not? Unless the seller was the original seller and knew and saw those walls going up and saw that those were aluminum wiring Now you have that extra level of protection protecting them too because now it's like well, wait a second.

I got this There's no way I could know that that was even there. I've never seen behind those areas, right? Do you know what I'm saying? 

Bisendra Melaram: It makes complete 

Jason Marcus: sense Are you gonna play both sides of the fence? Like is it risky? Like let's just say you do the prelim for the seller and now just coincidentally Like now you're getting this request from a buyer now like that that to me can be like It may be dangerous in your 

Brigitte Malik: side.

It's a great question. We've already done it now. So, a lot of times, we get, um, like a pre listing inspection. We've been doing pre listings. Pre listing inspections are not new. It's not a new thing. Right? But, we've done those where we do the pre listing and then we get the home inspection, right? But the other interesting thing that we have done numerous times is, [01:03:00] um, when there's bidding wars.

We've done the same house three to four times for different buyers. Nice. Referred by different agents. And we have to treat it as a whole new inspection each and every time. 

Jason Marcus: Yeah, because 

Brigitte Malik: I mean, it's a new day. It's a new day. So we just go in there, treat it as a whole new inspection. The seller's agent recognizes us right away, but they're not saying it.

Of course, no. Now, now what's great is now that reason that whatever the reason why the deal didn't go through those other times, now the seller already knows. So does the selling agent. And now they have to disclose it right away instead of trying to hide it. 

Bisendra Melaram: So we touched on that last week. Right, but Mr.

Kleiger is of the opinion that he's gonna stand his ground. I don't know, right? I wasn't privy to it. I'm not present I don't know that the person who conducted the inspection But that was basically my grounds because if the inspection is done and the cell and the buyer's Representation says hey my buyer is still interested, but there's these bump up bump items.[01:04:00] 

Are you gonna correct? They have to disclose it now, right? So because now the seller knows so now they have to do it But mr. Kleiger is of the opinion No, they know it, but we'll get it. We'll go back. 

Jason Marcus: That's gonna be the like you're gonna lose cuz I'm gonna put you on the stand Yeah, and it's like, okay.

Did you issue a report to that particular seller? Yes. Did you do the inspection and then disclose that to the buyer? Yes, it appears in both reports. We can literally 

Brigitte Malik: I see a whole movie 

Bisendra Melaram: happening. Yeah, I mean, it's 

Jason Marcus: it's 

Brigitte Malik: good It's good.

You're gonna have somebody that does that and they're gonna prove it. Hey, I saw this deal got it So why did that deal fall through they had an inspection? Okay, what did that inspection report? Wait, you didn't disclose as you felt 

Bisendra Melaram: it's so easy to do now, you know why? In that story that you just depicted, you have three separate reports.

Let's just, for argument's sake, buy three different inspectors. So what, it's under the same umbrella of Inspection Boys. Nobody cares. Right. It's three different times, three different days, three different inspectors. 

Brigitte Malik: Right. And I, I guarantee you, each one [01:05:00] of them probably found something that the other one didn't find.

Of course. Always happens. Of course. Makes sense. Yeah. It's always, you're always going to have that. They're all, they should all catch the major issues. They're not going to catch all the small ones. Right. 

Bisendra Melaram: And, and that's where, lo and behold, the pudding is. If somebody wants to make a big stink about it, well, wait, this is home seller, your property had three inspections 

Brigitte Malik: done.

Wait a second, remember, this has to be signed before the contract. So that means, those other ones didn't get to contract. 

Bisendra Melaram: Yeah, but see that, then, I'm gonna play Mr. Klieger's part. Cause he had to step out. He only sees one. Contract? Yeah, he only sees one contract, and he's only presented with one. But 

Brigitte Malik: the seller already knew about all the other 

Bisendra Melaram: ones.

Right, but he doesn't know because his client didn't disclose. I'm playing devil's advocate for him. 

Brigitte Malik: I, I get what you're saying. There's going to be people who do that, but I think it goes back to what you're saying too. I think there's going to be something where somebody tries to do that and it's going to lead up to a whole big [01:06:00] lawsuit and everybody and their mother's involved.

And guess what? Guess who's going to be able to send and get out of the lawsuit right away. You, me, cause I'm going to provide all the home inspection reports, all the agreements showing everything that we did and the seller knows When something doesn't go through because they were another agent was asked.

Hey, can you fix this? And it's I 

Bisendra Melaram: so, you know who else might get sued the listing agent. Oh, yeah Because now there's there's three but different buyers with three different home inspection reports that that Listing agent had to facilitate 

Jason Marcus: scheduling, but you'd have to prove that the listing agent reviewed that report to know what was in there So but I 

Bisendra Melaram: would have everything backed 

Jason Marcus: up And I wouldn't like if I'm a listing agent like and you even try to show me And it's like a pre inspection.

I would like I'd shown it like basically what Kleiger was to say and it's just like I don't almost want to see it because it's putting me up for liability on something that you could do and [01:07:00] now I'm going to be subjected. So 

Brigitte Malik: if we're talking about him as an attorney, I see his point. Now, if he doesn't see it, then he's okay.

I can see that point. It falls back on the seller. 

Bisendra Melaram: It does. It always falls back on the seller, but the seller is going to do what? 

Brigitte Malik: Oh, you're going to have, yeah. Point here there everywhere else and I think documentation is even more Important to cover your butt from all sides. I agree with you if I was the attorney Hey, you know what?

I don't know what I don't see I'd rather not but at the end of the day the attorney needs to make clear If you're not disclosing something, just so you know you're liable for the next seven years and they can't come after 

Bisendra Melaram: you. Yeah. And that's what he's saying, that he's going to write up his own CYA Yeah.

Document for to, for his own protection. And I understand that. Yeah, I understand that. And I, I wholeheartedly think I'm gonna have him draft one for myself too. You know what, I should think about this. Okay. It's one 

Brigitte Malik: extra piece of paper agreements 

Bisendra Melaram: too. Yeah. I mean, you still have some little disclosures on yours.

Yeah. but yeah, I would ramp it up a little bit just, and it's, it, [01:08:00] it's not terrible. I'm just saying. Look, you're, I'm only privy to the information you share with me, but whatever it is, whatever he writes, I'm good 

Brigitte Malik: with. Okay, another thing, our agreements cover us now for any, every, everything of that, 

Bisendra Melaram: so.

Yeah, I'm not I'm not worried about violating 

Jason Marcus: it. We got a really good attorney that can review your display list. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because, uh, trust me, he's looking to make sure that there's, everything is covered. Yeah, yeah. But I think the moral of the story is if you're a seller, like, just don't be a mutt.

Yeah, seriously, be honest. Like, that's it. I mean, you own what you own. It is what it is. It's just like Be forthcoming 

Brigitte Malik: with it and most issues are not big issues. If you fixed it, you rectified it. Yeah, great The problem becomes when you deliberately neglected your house And now look at the condition your house now if you've if you've said everything that you know that has happened to the house And the buyer is looking at this and they say hey, you know what i'm fine with this I still want to buy this then great now the buyer's taking full responsibility for that too And you've done your due [01:09:00] diligence to your knowledge.

Bisendra Melaram: Yep I agree. And, you know, it just comes down to the team that that's both sides, seller and buyer, align themselves with, right? So everyone just pay attention to who you put on your team. Right lender realtor home inspector. It's all like the attorney is like the key components of the whole thing for protection So just does this bring up title?

I don't think it does but I guess well, we'll find 

Brigitte Malik: out 

Bisendra Melaram: Yeah, 

Jason Marcus: yeah, 

Bisendra Melaram: we are we are we're working on we're actively working on that you need 

Brigitte Malik: somebody 

Bisendra Melaram: let me know I, I, I did, vicariously through your GM. Oh, through 

Brigitte Malik: Jesenia? Yeah. Okay. 

Bisendra Melaram: Good job. Yeah. That's what I told her. That's what I told her. So, I'm going to read this for Mr.

Kleiger. And this is his notes [01:10:00] to the sellers. Is to be honest and thorough in your disclosures and seek counsel if unsure about any aspect of your transaction. It's true. 

Brigitte Malik: That sounds very much like an attorney right there. Yeah. Yeah, right? 

Jason Marcus: I feel like more of the issues are going to happen on the people that waive inspections.

I mean, I really feel like you guys do such a good job out there that it's most of the time. I mean, like you said, most of these things are the like, it's the major things and it's like Usually you're going to, you're going to pick up on almost all of those things. So it's like, I understand things can slip through the cracks, no pun intended.

But at the end of the day, I feel like it's really, I'm more concerned with the person that has been pushed by an agent to waive an inspection to try to get a house into contract. And that's where I'll have more of a problem. You guys are involved. I feel like it's most 99. 9 percent of the time it's going to be fine.

Yeah. 

Brigitte Malik: You know, that's a good point. What if the seller is trying to [01:11:00] say, you know, wave inspection or do I don't know there's so much there's so much that 

Bisendra Melaram: can so a little context during even the height of pandemic pricing and sales. I never had a buyer. You know, like waive inspection. 

Brigitte Malik: Or, or were you not using it as a negotiation tactic?

I didn't need to. Yeah, well, I'm glad you didn't. Because there was a lot of people that used it as a negotiation tactic. Thousand 

Jason Marcus: percent. But it's dumb. I was getting it all the time. It's so dumb. Oh, it's so 

Bisendra Melaram: dumb. And you know what? Oh, you must have seen it left and right. Left and 

Jason Marcus: right. And it's like, I'm sitting there and especially with the fact that if I'm pre approving somebody and that's not my referral partner.

Forget about the fact like I'm all over the case of my referral partner if they're playing this game. I completely hate it and they know it, but like, God help you if like you're trying to represent the seller and taking my client to see houses and trying to get them to waive. It's like, you know what, I'm going to do something different.

Why don't you let me get a commitment for them and I'll issue a commitment [01:12:00] pre, yeah. Contract and use that as the leverage versus trying to take away their protection by not getting 

Brigitte Malik: an inspection. You know, that's a great class right there. Pre commitment versus pre approval. Cause most people don't 

Bisendra Melaram: even understand what the difference is.

I literally just had this conversation with one of the coaching students here. Yeah. So, they didn't know. And it was actually one of Mr. Marcus counterparts. At contour, So I told her she's she came to me for help. She's like, look, I have a buyer. That's Very close to me. They want to be competitive in this market.

Their numbers not quite, you know there So we ran the numbers yesterday and then while when she was leaving I thought about I was like wait But you didn't give her the best piece of advice So I saw her this morning and I was like look what you need to do is get a conditional commitment for your buyer She's like, but why what is that?

I was like, it's exactly what it is It's a conditional commitment with the condition being the property identified for this purchase has to appraise right and the [01:13:00] average agent does They don't know so I told her I said look That's Marcus's boy, call, you know, I was like, Marcus will be here in 15 minutes.

I was like, if you want to wait for him, he'll give you the advice free of charge. Yeah, we 

Jason Marcus: call it secure buy. It's like, it's just a smarter, I don't sit there and in a lot of cases recommend everybody to do it. No. Like when you get into these situations where you need the leverage, I will take that over waiving inspection 

Brigitte Malik: any day of the week.

Hey, listen to this. I'm a buyer. Here's my license. Here's my social security. Run my credit. Here's what I make. Here's my W 2. Go ahead, get me pre approved, right? You're gonna get a pre approval. You can 

Jason Marcus: get that how fast? I mean I could do that within 20 minutes. There you go 

Brigitte Malik: pre commitment If i'm honest, don't those go through like a little bit of underwriting.

Jason Marcus: It's got to go through That's the biggest thing so 

Brigitte Malik: now they've gone through pre commitment They've already given underwriters everything that they need Oh that you're missing this bank statement or wait, how much is this car payment or what your mom pays? Okay, I need [01:14:00] this letter. I need that whatever whatever things come up during the home buying process, right?

So now technically What's everybody always waiting for to get to the closing table? Commitment. Commitment. 

Bisendra Melaram: So, Right. And 

Jason Marcus: so what I, So it's like, yeah, the only things that I really have to do if I do my due diligence up front is I need to get the appraisal done, I need to get homeowner's insurance in place, and I need the title.

Right. Which is 

Bisendra Melaram: not that hard. 

Jason Marcus: Not gonna take me more than a couple weeks to be able to shut that down. It's huge. No, I mean this there's angles to take but unfortunately when you're dealing with people that don't have the experience in this this is where These things and the wheeling and dealing. Yeah, I mean, it's like I don't ever worry about professional eat But it's a point to what you're talking about.

It's like oh, I never had to do that Yeah, cuz you're good at this right like 

Bisendra Melaram: So as soon as I told I said look Call up the officer tell him I told you and see if he's willing to do or if he knows But it's a season one of Jay's contour buddies, right?

So they're all phenomenal [01:15:00] guys, right? I mean, I'm not trying to help that kid 

Jason Marcus: if 

Bisendra Melaram: he no, no, no No so immediately text back great idea you want to do it for them meaning the buyer and She turned around eyes lit up. She was like Absolutely. Right now. And they were working on it when Mr. Marcus walked in.

Yeah. And she was like, I never knew this. No one's ever told me in all these years. Why has nobody told me? Why haven't you told me? I said, we never had this conversation. So my job is to make sure you get the deal closed. 

Brigitte Malik: Knowledge is 

Jason Marcus: power. Right. And it's not every bank that'll do it. So like that's a whole other thing.

I work for a place that does that for that 

Brigitte Malik: reason. Question, can you do that on non QM loans too? 

Jason Marcus: No, cause that's investor specific. So it's like, oh she was ready for it. But that's a great question. But uh, the non QM's like those, I mean in itself, those are pretty easy anyway because what we're dissecting like But I shouldn't, they won't issue the [01:16:00] commitment on it, but when it comes down to it, so for those out there that are listening in regards to the non QM, those are the out of the box type of loans.

So you might do something where it's a P& L from the accountant or it's 24 months bank statements or 12 months bank statements for self employed individuals and that's how we'll calculate the income. What most of those companies allow me to do is send them the documentation. So I get to a point where they've already gone over these things and given me basically not the commitment, but an approval on this.

So I know, okay, I'm going to be able to get this through in a ridiculously quick amount of time. A lot of times I'm going to have to have discussions with an agent to be like, Hey, listen, this is a non traditional type of loan. Like this is where I'm at with it. And I'll explain it. But the other thing, when it comes down to agents, it's like when.

And I I tell people to do this all the time. Get me on the phone. I can't tell you how many times like I have nailed that deal down because when an agent talks [01:17:00] to me and they can see that there's a competent individual on the banking side on the other side of this, it's not always about, you know, how far into the process it is.

Sometimes it's literally Just about how the loan officer is answering the questions, how articulate they are, how knowledgeable because it's out there, you can find out. I've been doing this for 24 years. You can have a conversation with me and I'm articulate and I can answer all of your questions. And a lot of times even I'll tell them to get the seller on the phone.

It's like if you need me to sit there and make you feel warm and fuzzy that I was due diligent, I'm happy to do it. And it's funny to me when lenders are like, no, I don't want to talk to I don't want to talk to them. First of all, I get all sorts of fired up when an agent calls me and asks about a pre approval.

And I got people get annoyed about that. I'm like, are you kidding me? You just identified yourself as a diligent, intelligent, hardworking real estate agent that I want to do business with. Shame on you for calling me and identifying yourself as such. I 

Brigitte Malik: love the fact that you're actually answering the phone.

Oh, he 

Jason Marcus: answers. Oh, I mean, I'm, [01:18:00] I'm 

Bisendra Melaram: glued to this. There's only one or two instances that he wouldn't answer. The 

Brigitte Malik: only time I'm not checking my phone is like, Times like this which I'm scared to even check my phone right now. No, but 

Bisendra Melaram: it's how we've done. You're gonna be like, oh my god 

Jason Marcus: But you see I can't help myself even during these things like I'm sitting there listening to what you're saying But um, and it's funny I was talking to like a couple of the team members today where I like you were talking about just like the Obsessiveness and how you go about doing things my obsession is I can't deal with having indicators on apps That's why I'm gonna go nuts Like, you'll see my phone, it's like, there's not one app that has one number in it.

My emails include, I saw a guy today with an email with 17, 000, I'm shaking, 

Brigitte Malik: I'm shaking looking at this person. Whatever emails I have unread are emails I need to go back and follow up on or actually something I need to, like a project I'm working on. 

Bisendra Melaram: Yeah, so my, my real estate practice email has zero unanswered, unopened, but I do have a special.

Email that is just for online [01:19:00] purchases. So that's where all the emails are really good idea. I separate everything So I'm like, oh, I don't care when I want something like if I know I'm gonna go buy something from I don't know Walmart, let's just say I'll open it just to see actually no, I'll give you for instance today I got it.

I was going to CVS and they always send coupons. So you have to add it to your card So I go in there and I just searched for CVS. I'm like, oh you have a 5 coupon Click add to card. Thank you. And then that it gets closed again. That's it. Yeah, but yeah, so Finishing that story it worked in her case for me to give her that information because she's coachable She was receptive to the information she was getting and to mr.

Marcus's point when you have experience it shows That's why she was like Bisendra, Bisendra, Bisendra. yeah, I can help you but you got it and Thankfully it was contour You know, Mr. Marcus's outfit and he was able to quickly say yes, I can do it and they qualify not that they qualify that based on information that [01:20:00] he has he's more than happy to do it for them Right, right because there's a lot of pieces to that puzzle.

Mr. Marcus has already told you and will continue to tell you but yeah Not all lenders do that because I had to ask her there were some questions before who's the lender? How and I personally don't know him because you know, I have my best bud over here. So I was like how long has he been doing loans long enough?

This is an easy one for you, right if you're in that that range in like 20 years This is an easy one for you. Yeah, you pretty much and he answered back right away So I I have every confidence in that individual now 

Jason Marcus: and god help god help a loan officer I don't even care if you're not in my company. God help you if an agent calls me to go call you.

And it's not positive. I feel, I, I, I'll, I'll tell you ahead of time how bad I feel for you. Yeah? Cause I, I just don't, I don't accept incompetence. Yep. And I'm, you know, I'm a nice human being. You are. Until, you know, the teeth have to get shaved. 

Brigitte Malik: It's hard, [01:21:00] man. I'm gonna say this, like, when I was buying my house, I had, my, my first lender was not the greatest.

My second lender was great He saved the whole deal, but the first lender didn't realize he was incompetent Right almost lost the whole thing. Ignorance is bliss and I can't help but still have Like, think about that. And he's still in the industry. And now I know he is a, a good lender 'cause he represents some really amazing people.

But it came at my expense and now in my head it's like, nope, you're tainted forever in my head. 

Bisendra Melaram: You know what I mean of you only get that one chance. Yep. That's it. You get that one chance. And people don't understand how hard it is for us in this industry. Well, the other 

Jason Marcus: part that it's, we, we talk about this on all of our sides, like how thankless it is because unfortunately when you have a really good experience.

You don't even know you're having a really good experience a lot of times because you have nothing to compare it to if I Have a first time home buyer that I was talking about earlier where I'm going over the [01:22:00] top and explaining everything out And I'm walking them through this and I'm holding their hand and I get them to closing and I do all the things that are right Most people just think that that's just the way it is.

That's the normal way, yeah. You know, you do, I see a picture on a report. What report am I comparing? Oh, everybody puts 10 outlets on a report. But so that's why it's a little bit thankless for us. And it's like, we have to high five each other. And we know like, when we find these people in the industry that are good, we're like, We know you guys are all awesome and you're great and we keep them close and we keep them in our network and that's how we built but a lot of times unfortunately it's a little bit thankless because like again we have nothing they have nothing to compare 

Brigitte Malik: it to and it sucks because when not everything is always perfect even the home inspection process things things go wrong sometimes we had an inspector a lot of time he got he got the stomach flu on the way to a job on the side of southern state can't stop Throwing up and the other way too.

Like literally, like I'm sorry, we had to reschedule [01:23:00] everything. And they're mad at us and we lost that agent forever. And I'm sorry, like these things happen like I can't control what I can't control. Yeah, life is a real thing. You know, so there's things that go wrong. And, it sucks. But that guy was really not a 

Jason Marcus: good experience.

Good riddance. Yeah, yeah, that's how I say it. If somebody's gonna kick you to the curb after finding something like that out. It's like, mm, yeah, 

Bisendra Melaram: I'm, I'm not, I'm not sorry. Yeah, I'm not sorry. Bye. I'm not sorry. People are like, Hey, so how are you handling, you know, all these agents not coming back. I'm fine.

Yeah. Why not? I'm fine. 

Brigitte Malik: A lot of home inspectors left the industry. Yeah. 

Jason Marcus: I'm fine with that. And you're good. Yeah. We need the weeding out of it. Yeah. That's just, again, I'm 

Bisendra Melaram: happy about it because all the people who, I don't wanna say couldn't cut it. But do not have the stomach or the demeanor for it.

Because we're in customer service, right? All day, every day. We're in customer service. And if your customer's not happy, you're not in service. That's it. Yeah, so so anyway, so let's get back to To this [01:24:00] so Brigitte any final words of advice on this new property condition disclosure and how to attack it from either a buyer seller Or both.

Um, 

Brigitte Malik: I'm excited and nervous a little bit of everything I don't know exactly how it's gonna go down, but I think it's something that Um, we'll help buyers a little bit. And also I think it's something that will help sellers as well, because they'll have a better idea on exactly what's going on with the house.

And I think it'll help with prices. I think so too. I think prices. Yeah. Cause sellers come in and they're like, Oh, my house is worth 700, 000. And then you look at this and you're like, wait a second, you got major foundation issues. deduct Money 

Bisendra Melaram: right there. I think you're right. I think it will level the playing field and.

Basically reset everyone's level of expectation. Yeah a value it at a minimum accountability. Oh, yeah. I love it. That's why I'm unbothered I'm unbothered only because it's [01:25:00] I've come to terms with it and it's another piece to my education puzzle That I have to convey to my now client. 

Brigitte Malik: Somebody's gonna try to figure out a way to get it waived every single time.

I don't care. You're gonna start to see that have a, they always, somebody's out there always just trying to figure out, Oh no, I never have to worry about it cause I do this, I do this, and. 

Bisendra Melaram: Yeah, I, I have people to help and that's the only road I'm on. Everything else, whatever I rules I have to follow, I'll follow it.

That's it. End of story. Mr. Marcus? 

Jason Marcus: I only have really one piece of advice for everybody out there, and that's to, uh, call Brigitte from the Inspection Boys. Yeah. Oh, 

Bisendra Melaram: wow. What did I do? No! I don't know. Just like You like it, right? I do. Yeah. I do. 

Brigitte Malik: Yeah. I'm pretty cool. Can you tell this to my 8 year old daughter?

Jason Marcus: Oh, tell me. I'll send her a TikTok. 10 and 7. I'll send her a TikTok. Wish I was 

Bisendra Melaram: cooler. 

That's all for this episode of Keys to the Castle.

Join us next time. For more insights and expert advice [01:26:00] until then happy house hunting castle dwellers. And remember everyone's contact information is in the show description. See you in the next one and keep those keys jangling.