Episode 1: Unveiling the Mission: The Genesis of TruHome Value

James Clark, KieAnn Brownell and Kari Abt share the inception story of TruHome Value, detailing the pivotal moments that drove them to challenge the status quo of blind bid real estate transactions.

Summary:
In this first episode of the “Real Estate Blind Bid Provocateurs” podcast, hosts James Clark, KieAnn Brownell, and Kari Abt discuss the founding of TruHome Value. The conversation begins with KieAnn recounting a personal experience where, despite submitting a promising offer $70,000 over asking price, she was outbid by $1,000 due to a lack of communication from the listing agent. This experience led KieAnn and Kari to recognize the need for a more transparent bidding process in the real estate market.

The hosts discuss how the blind bidding process creates frustration, mistrust, and inefficiency for all parties involved. They emphasize that the current system often results in the seller receiving less than the optimal price for their property. By implementing a transparent bidding platform, TruHome Value aims to address these issues and create a more open and honest marketplace.

The hosts highlight the benefits of a transparent offer portal, including:

1. Increased efficiency for the listing agent, reducing the need for managing multiple spreadsheets and communications.
2. Enhanced trust and transparency for buyers, allowing them to see what they are up against and make informed decisions.
3. Improved seller satisfaction, ensuring they receive the best possible price for their property.

The hosts encourage listeners to follow the podcast on Apple Podcasts and subscribe to their YouTube channel, @TruHomeValue. In the next episode, they plan to discuss transparent open bidding and how it can revolutionize the real estate industry.

If you believe in our cause and found value in our discussion, please like, follow our show, and share it with anyone who has experienced or is curious about the absurdity of the blind bid process. We're eager to hear from you and continue this conversation. Connect with us on YouTube, LinkedIn, and Instagram @truhomevalue. Let's journey together towards a more transparent, trustworthy, and fair real estate market.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or your favorite podcast platform.

Get in Touch:

• TruHome Value's Website: https://www.truhomevalue.com
• Follow TruHome Value on X @truhomevalue
• Connect with us on LinkedIn and YouTube for more insights and updates.

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Transcript

James: You are listening to the Real Estate Blind Bid Provocateurs, a podcast, taking a bold stand against the opaque and frustrating process of blind bidding. A system that has long plaqued the real estate market with uncertainty. mistrust and manipulation. This podcast is a production of TruHome Value the pioneers of transparent open bidding in residential real estate. 

James: Now on to the show 

James: Welcome everybody to Episode 1, Unveiling the Mission, the Genesis of TruHome Value. I'm James Clark, one of the co-hosts here, along with my fellow co-host, KieAnn Brownell, and Kari Abt. Not only co-hosts, but co-founders of TruHome Value. Welcome.

KieAnn Thank you. 

Kari: Good to be here, James.

James: We're in Episode 1. We're talking about unveiling the mission here. Why don't you give us the background story of how and why we got to launching TruHome Value.

 Okay, so it was February of 2020. I had a [00:01:00] buyer who was super qualified. He was a first time home buyer, but he had a lot of cash to put down, and we found this house that we liked. We saw it. It went on the market Friday, we saw it Friday afternoon. We were the first offer in, and let me tell you, I. This was a baller offer. we were like 70,000 over asking price. His loan to value was something like 40%, so he had zero issues with appraisal, so we waived the appraisal, condition. No inspection. You know everything that you do when you're just desperate to buy a house. We had this primo offer and I talked to the listing agent.

KieAnn I'm talking to her all weekend. We're looking good I think her deadline was, she moved the deadline to Monday at five o'clock. So I talked to her three o'clock Monday and she's You guys are great. You're looking good. I don't see anything. you're the ones, he'll be signing it shortly, et cetera.

KieAnn So I'm fired up. I am talking to my buyer, [00:02:00] who's just, frantic, wanting to know where we stand. I'm saying it's looking good. It's looking good. They haven't signed yet. It's looking good. So all of a sudden it gets to be like four o'clock. They haven't signed. I'm calling the agent.

KieAnn She's not answering 4:30, not answering. Five o'clock comes and goes. They don't sign our offer. I'm like, what the heck is going on? So finally seven o'clock, I get ahold of her. She answers my call and I'm like, what happened? And she's I'm not at liberty to discuss. What? Like we were in the number one position two hours ago what happened? No idea. So fast forward to the closing. Turns out we lost that. She took an offer that evidently came in between three and five that was a thousand dollars higher than ours. She didn't call us. She didn't ask us if we wanted to go up anything. So I'm on the phone that night. By the time I hang up with her like seven 30 on Monday night, I am fuming.

KieAnn I am stomping around my [00:03:00] kitchen mad and Kari calls me, she's just gotten done with a loan consultation. And Kari, all the handoff to you and you can tell the rest of the story.

James: Oh Here we 

Kari: my God. Oh, she was so mad. She was a firecracker. Just so absolutely irritated by the lack of communication with the listing agent. It went from literally the pendulum swung from one extreme to the next. From, Hey, we're in great to complete disappointment and dismay. This other person wouldn't have the integrity to make a phone call. Listen, I know we've been in correspondence and I led you with the impression your client was gonna be in great shape and we'd have a deal here. but we have another offer that just magically showed up. Here's your opportunity to get a little more aggressive if you feel like you've got that, wiggle room.

Kari: If not, we're gonna part friends and move on with this other offer. [00:04:00] There was just none of that. Like zero communication, just radio silence gone dark. and that's when KieAnn and I really started to say, this is this pain and poke process is not doing anyone any good. It's stressing everybody out.

Kari: from my side of it, having a lot of communication with the buyers, I'm always the 3rd party sounding bored. somebody who's a little bit removed from the negotiation process, but still in the game with everyone else. and the buyers are, dumbfounded as to how these things unfold this way.

Kari: And KieAnn, you can talk a little bit more about where you and I started to say, This is not what's netting the seller the most, right? That the listing agents feel like they can just put it to this blind bidding process, let 'em duke it out. Eventually the listing agent gets exhausted keeping track of all these offers.

Kari: They just take whatever's highest and best and move on. And KieAnn you and I have talked a lot about is that truly in the [00:05:00] seller's best interest?

KieAnn That's exactly right. in that particular case, I can argue that listing agent. Did not fulfill her fiduciary duty to her seller to get him the highest price because we would have gone up had we known we would have, we would've gone up five grand, probably $10,000, But to your point, Kari, it's now Monday.

KieAnn This has been going on for her since Friday. Now the seller's a little involved, but lemme tell you, when you're the listing agent on that, you are inundated. She had over 20 offers, she told me. So you can imagine she must have had, I'm not exaggerating, over a 100 phone calls that weekend from agents because, if she netted 20 offers, there's gonna be, I.

KieAnn 80 that are gonna fall out 'cause it's gotten too rich for their blood. But so she's gonna be answering the phone, talking to a hundred agents. She's exhausted by that point and she's [00:06:00] just done with it. She doesn't wanna deal with it anymore. And here's the thing, I don't even remember the price on this particular house, and gratefully, I don't even remember what agent it was, but let's say the price was 500,000 and she's making 2.8 or 3% on it. So she's making 15 K if she sells it for 501 she makes an extra 30 bucks. If she sells it for 510, she makes an extra 300 bucks. It doesn't really matter. 300 to 30, that's a $270 difference. That seller just lost $9,000. It matters to that seller. And you know the thing that just. I remember about that conversation that night.

KieAnn Kari is us just talking about there has to be a better way. Nobody is winning in this situation, the buyers are frustrated. The seller lost money. The listing agent is [00:07:00] worn out and exhausted and exasperated. As a buying agent, I was just fuming and exasperated. It's a horrible 

James: and then you had to go tell your client that they lost too. just the, just the domino effect of this is incredible. Everybody loses. I.

KieAnn everybody 

Kari: and even the buyers get exhausted. they can only write so many offers on so many homes and get their butts kicked in this manner where they get to the point of just wanting to throw in the towel and give up, and then they wonder, is the market gonna cool off? Are these real estate values gonna come down?

Kari: There's all of these, new reasons to take a pause and step back and it's a just nightmare For everyone involved. Nobody feels good about it at the end until eventually somebody gets to the closing table and it's, hindsight's 2020 and you can either decide that worked out great or it didn't, whatever the case might be.

Kari: And KiaAnn and I were, hell bent that night moving forward on coming up with a better way. [00:08:00] There's nothing else that we buy in our lives where we're like, Hey, we're, gonna not know, what we're up against and we're just gonna keep throwing money at the wall and see how much of it sticks and how much debt we're gonna put ourselves into.

KieAnn and then go full circle. James, you and I had lunch like a week later and I was telling you this story and you were landing on. You can tell your side of how we got here if you want.

James: Yeah, same thing. we hooked up and I was like, I just bought a house and it was totally crazy. it was super frustrating. I lost the first two bids, they passed on it, so they were apparently cash deals. I. and that's what the buyer was really excited about, but both of them dropped out. And here I am weeks later, and I've been asking my agent like, should we put in a backup offer?

James: Oh, don't do that. That'll incentivize 'em to, close with the first. it was all these like things, I'm like, I just don't get any of this. and then it came back. It's oh, guess what? we have the opportunity to buy this house again. At what price 

James: Where are we? I just thought that [00:09:00] either the agent's incompetent or, I'm missing something. I didn't know what to do. I started trying to bid on additional homes during that same time. And it just felt frantic.

James: And then, talking with you KieAnn, you're like, yeah, this is the business. This is like one of the things that, happens. It's it's not necessarily your agent. There is just so much that's behind the scenes, that is unknown to these individuals. And then that's, and you were like, I talked to my friend Kari we said, we gotta take care of this. And I'm like, all right, I'm in. Because it was so new and so recent to me. I'm like, let's take care of that. how do we do it? and I guess that was the genesis of saying, it's gotta be an open, transparent bid system. What else would really solve the root issue here inside of residential real estate?

Kari: Yeah, an offer platform, where everybody can see what they're up against. some transparency, some integrity, and some technology that gives everybody some relief, right? [00:10:00] I. Seller. you wanna sell your home. You're wondering, Hey, where are we at?

Kari: we had some showings. Are there any offers? Look right there. there's a platform. You can see you've got offers coming in. The listing agent has a better opportunity to manage, where these offers are, what they look like, instead of having to spend, endless hours, creating spreadsheets of the terms and conditions of each offer and what might be in the seller's best interest.

Kari: And then having that conversation with them. Buyers can see right there. What are they up against? Is my agent, telling the truth? Are these agents playing games? Nope. We can see right there, there's the offers that here's where they're coming in. Everybody wins with a transparent offer portal, everybody can see what's going on, right?

Kari: We wouldn't go to a car dealership. And, and say, you know what? I wanna buy this car over here. and the salesman says, fantastic. Here's our list price. But James over here came in and he offered more. And I heard KieAnn's gonna offer more than that. Where are you [00:11:00] at? And I said, what do they wanna pay?

Kari: I can't tell you. where are they? I don't know. That's, I can't tell you who they are, where they're at,

KieAnn I am not at

KieAnn liberty to discuss that. what 

James: Right. 

KieAnn The point I just wanna drive home is that there's a huge misconception that this blind bid process, the pig in a poke process, nets the seller a higher price. Think of my example. They left money on that table, probably $10,000. What? It doesn't net a higher price. It's a misconception.

James: All right. we'll get into that in our second episode talking about transparent open bidding and how that we see as being the revolution that's happening in real estate. KieAnn. Kari, thank you so much. this is gonna be fun,Please, follow us on Apple Podcast.

James: You can also find us on YouTube if you search for [00:12:00] @TruHomeValue, T-R-U-H-O-M-E Value. We will catch you on the next episode. Thanks.