A Dad And Daughter Talk Home Buying Basics

A nine-year-old asking real estate questions turns out to be the fastest way to cut through the noise. We’re joined by Cora for a relaxed, funny, and surprisingly sharp conversation that explains home buying and home selling in plain English, the way most people wish the industry talked all the time.

We start with the personal side of the job: why we chose real estate in the first place, what “freedom” really looks like day to day, and how much of this business is built on being present for clients when the pressure is on. Then Cora jumps straight into the big one: why houses cost so much money. We break down the basics behind home prices, including inflation over time, construction costs, labor, and what buyers are up against when “starter homes” don’t feel starter-priced anymore.

From there, we get practical. We talk staging and why it helps homes sell faster and for more, even when buyers think they can picture an empty room. We dig into home inspections, what they can uncover, and how inspection results become real negotiating power. We also get real about what it feels like when a deal closes, including that odd “breakup” moment when you go from constant texts to silence overnight.

We wrap with what’s slowing the housing market down right now, how mortgage rates shape affordability, and one piece of advice we’d give any new realtor who wants to last. Subscribe to Venture with Joe and Cody, share this with a friend who’s house hunting, and leave a review. What’s the one real estate question you wish someone would answer straight?

Transcript

Welcome And Meet Cora

SPEAKER_01 0:48

Hey guys, welcome to another episode. This is going to be kind of a combo live stream with uh Joe and Cody and a venture with Joe and Cody. Uh but as you can see, we have a cute new visitor here with me. Um Cody is working and has some other obligations, so we had to have someone step in. And uh this is Cora, my daughter. Um, and she is, yeah, she's just gonna talk to us today. She's got a lot of real estate knowledge and a lot of lending knowledge, probably more than Cody does. And so it'll be more informative. But uh no, so if you are paying attention on the live stream right now, um Cora and I are gonna be live, but we also are gonna use this recording for the podcast. So uh if you don't catch it live, uh this same thing will be on the podcast, Venture with Joe and Cody. So if you haven't already, go to Apple, Spotify, sign up for our stuff. Cora's gonna be famous, probably get more views than any of our other videos because you are way cuter than Cody and I. So um, so Cora, what's going on? How are you?

SPEAKER_00 1:49

I'm good.

SPEAKER_01 1:50

Good. Uh you have just started summer, so what's the what's the summer plans? Tell everyone what your summer plans are.

SPEAKER_00 1:56

Um, I've kind of just been hanging out with friends and going to the pool, and I have some family trips.

SPEAKER_01 2:03

Nice. What's the uh I I know there's a trip coming up. Tell everyone about what you're doing in the next uh couple days.

SPEAKER_00 2:09

Oh, uh tomorrow I am leaving to Arizona to go see my cousins.

SPEAKER_01 2:15

Nice, nice. That's gonna be fun. Is it hot there?

SPEAKER_00 2:19

Yes, pretty hot.

SPEAKER_01 2:21

Okay. You uh and you're going staying with granny and your cousins. Uh you want to give them a shout out here since everyone's paying attention.

SPEAKER_00 2:28

Hi guys. Hi Maybe and Quincy and Rocky.

SPEAKER_01 2:33

Yeah, okay. The three cousins. They're excited to see you. That's gonna be fun. I'm not a big fan of you leaving for that long, but you seem to be totally okay with that. So, Miss Independent. So, um, on to the real estate world. What uh I know you have some questions. I've got some questions for you. Do you want to do you want to start off or do you want me to start off with a question?

SPEAKER_00 2:53

I can I can start off.

SPEAKER_01 2:54

Okay, let's do it. Let's do it.

SPEAKER_00 2:56

I have no idea what she's gonna ask, so the my top ten real estate questions. My first one is why do you like real estate?

SPEAKER_01 3:05

Oh man. That's that's a that gets a little deeper. Um no, I like real estate. I think I got into real estate because, and I think I've talked about this before, is I like the freedom that real estate offers in the sense it's not really freedom because it is a very busy job, but when I went from the police, as you know, like I was gone a lot. Um real estate provided me with the uh freedom to be able to kind of be with you guys and kind of do these sort of

Summer Plans Then Real Estate Begins

SPEAKER_01 3:31

things, go to your games, your practices, all your stuff, help coach and things like that. So I would say I do like helping people get into homes and help people buying and selling homes. However, I like more that I have more time with you guys and have more time with family than I did in my old job. Good question, Cora. Do you want me to go one for you? Let's go one for one here. Okay, let's see, let's see. I had it all written down. Where are you? Okay. Okay. If you were a real estate agent for the day, how would you convince someone to buy a house?

SPEAKER_00 4:05

Oh, that's a hard question. Yeah. I think I would kind of convince them, like saying it's a really nice house. I think you should buy it, and saying that it might be like nice for them in a lot of things.

SPEAKER_01 4:19

So you highlight all the features of the house?

SPEAKER_00 4:22

Yeah, like saying all the good things about the house.

SPEAKER_01 4:24

Yeah. Okay. Okay, that's pretty good. I think you'd answer that's better than most agents would answer. So um, okay, you got one another one for me?

SPEAKER_00 4:33

My second one is why do houses cost so much money?

SPEAKER_01 4:38

Oof, man. Um, that's a good question. Um, all well, part of it, you know, without getting into the the details, is as as time goes on and as uh inflation goes up and things like that, and as the dollar gains more value just over time, things just cost more. Like I think when our your grandparents, you know, were buying homes, they were like seventy thousand dollars or fifty thousand dollars, and now you know the average home is five hundred something thousand dollars. So part of it is just kind of as time progresses, the cost of things go up just relatively to what's going on. But also, you know, the things that can change house prices uh day to day or year to year are construction costs, paying for the workers to do it, paying for the wood, the labor,

Why Homes Cost So Much

SPEAKER_01 5:22

all the stuff that goes into building a home becomes more expensive uh as different things in the world go on. So homes, homes are spendy right now. We're just looking at, you know, I was just looking at starter homes, you know, for uh for uh clients of mine that we're looking in like $650,000, $680,000. It's crazy because when your mom and I were looking, she'll probably correct me, but I think we were looking in the $300 something thousand dollar range, and that was a lot of money. We were like pushing it at $300,000,000. So um, yeah, just crazy how how prices have changed with that. Yeah. Um uh da. What do you have? Okay, um, okay, this is a good one. What's one thing every house needs that grown-ups always forget? Uh um Like things that that things that a like a grown-up would forget to put in a house that you think every house should have. As a kid.

SPEAKER_00 6:23

Well, I am a kid, so let's see here.

SPEAKER_01 6:28

So you should be able to answer this question.

SPEAKER_00 6:30

In my own house.

SPEAKER_01 6:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:32

Let's see.

SPEAKER_01 6:33

Like it when someone's building a house, so say for example, I'm just building a house and I have the bedrooms and the bathrooms and whatever I need, you know, as a kid, what would you be like? Every house needs to have this.

SPEAKER_00 6:44

Like a bonus room.

SPEAKER_01 6:47

A bonus room? That's pretty practical of you. Like you're very a very adult question, because you could be like a slide, a trampoline in the house, a pool, like a bonus room, like so kids can play games.

SPEAKER_00 7:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:04

That's actually a very adult response because I think a lot of people like a lot of people want a bonus room. But I thought you'd uh answer something crazy, like a ball pit or some sort of thing like that.

SPEAKER_00 7:14

I wasn't thinking anything like that.

SPEAKER_01 7:17

You're so mature, Cora. Um but yeah, I thought you'd go trampoline because you um have been wanting a trampoline.

SPEAKER_00 7:25

Yeah, you won't get us one.

SPEAKER_01 7:26

Yeah, I don't uh I don't want to get you one. So um it's just asking for a broken bone. Your brother already broke his leg doing it, so I normally don't care about that stuff. But yeah, you almost you bent your you bent your leg back or your high Ugh, gross. Um okay, you got another question for me?

SPEAKER_00 7:46

Yeah, my third question, is there a reason you joined real estate?

SPEAKER_01 7:51

Yeah, kind of like what we talked about. Um I was in uh for those who don't know, I was uh with the state police for how long was I with the state police? 15 years. Um and it was a fun job, and I enjoyed doing it, and I still miss it a lot. However, it just got to the point where you know I've I've always wanted to run my own business and do my own thing and be my own boss. And I think you guys kind of pushed me to say it's time to prioritize the family and and time uh away, you know, having f flexibility with time than uh working for uh the state and set hours. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:27

And here I am doing podcasts with you.

SPEAKER_00 8:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:31

Um, okay. If you could design your dream home or dream room, what's in it? What's in the dream room?

SPEAKER_00 8:40

Uh I think if it was like a big enough room, I would do like a queen bed.

SPEAKER_01 8:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:46

And then I would put like a makeup desk, a normal desk. I would put a swing. Um and then I would have like a normal closet like that can actually open with doors because mine's just the curtain.

SPEAKER_01 9:03

Yeah. Well we took those off because those doors are so those sliding doors are kind of annoying. Yeah. And they break easy.

SPEAKER_00 9:09

So Yeah. They did. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:13

So you basically would want your exact room except a queen bed.

SPEAKER_00 9:18

Well, I would put like I think I would like make some like stuff on my walls and do like some like painting, like, and like put like my name thing, that like my Kora on the wall. And yeah, I think, yeah, that's basically mine.

SPEAKER_01 9:36

That it literally is your room. Like, so a little history. Yeah, a little history with Cora is she is very uh sh Rory just got a queen bed in his room, right? Um and Cora is not happy about it. She has a twin bed and thinks that she deserves a queen queen bed. However, if you had a queen bed in there, you would have zero space to move because that's a small room. So you just literally have a bed as a room.

SPEAKER_00 10:01

Hey, I think I'm getting a foal because of a foam.

SPEAKER_01 10:04

I don't know why. I I don't know why these talks turn into something with you. You've always managed to convince us to do things that no one else got. By the way, on that note, your older brother was in a twin bed literally until four months ago. And he's like eight feet tall and a he and an adult. So you're a little baby nine-year-old and you're like already wanting a full bed. So, anyways, we'll fight about this later. Um, okay, so you oh, did I just ask you? So you got to ask me now.

SPEAKER_00 10:33

Yeah. Um, so oh, my fourth question is why do you have to stage the houses?

SPEAKER_01 10:44

Uh good question. Very good question. Stage houses show better. Do you know what staged is?

SPEAKER_00 10:50

Yeah, it's like where you put stuff in the house to make it look better.

SPEAKER_01 10:54

Yeah. Yep, so stage houses just show better. Um, for as much as people think that they can imagine, you know, what a living room looks like or what a kitchen looks like empty, most buyers need that kind of guide of like, oh, that's a cute, you know, way to set up this little this room, or we could do this office like this and that sort of thing. So from a real estate standpoint, staged homes sell for more money and they sell quicker. So we always recommend staging a home. You got anything to add to that?

Staging And First Impressions

SPEAKER_00 11:22

No.

SPEAKER_01 11:23

You got your question answered. Okay. Okay, this is this this could get you grounded, or this could get you like, you know, ice cream tonight. But uh, what do you think your dad does for work all day?

SPEAKER_00 11:37

Real estate.

SPEAKER_01 11:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:39

Because I hear you talk about it every single day. And every time I look at you, you're doing it.

SPEAKER_01 11:46

Yeah, I know. I know. It's always on the phone and always that stuff. You're the you're the one child that like always calls us out with it um to stop.

SPEAKER_00 11:53

Yeah, on tr on trips, you're always just talking about it. It's like it's time to have fun.

SPEAKER_01 11:58

Uh well, people need to buy and sell homes. It's a big purchase and a big sale, so we have to be available for 'em. So that's how you go on your big trips, Missy. But that's good. I thought you would say something more rude about what I do, so I'm glad I'm glad uh that it turned out to be more normal. Anyways, ice cream?

SPEAKER_00 12:18

What did you say about ice cream?

SPEAKER_01 12:20

Well, I said you could I could depending on your answer, which I thought you could either go a rude way of how what I do all day, or you could go a nice way, and you actually pretty stayed pretty good. So we'll talk about ice cream later.

SPEAKER_00 12:32

Yeah, maybe.

SPEAKER_01 12:34

Um, okay, got another one for me?

SPEAKER_00 12:37

Yes, my fifth question: why do you have to have inspections for the houses?

SPEAKER_01 12:44

Uh, good question. Man, you have just got all of them really good. Uh no, they an inspection shows what's wrong with the house. So basically, an inspector comes through the house and they say, you know, if there's a leak in the floor or leak in the ceiling, or there's mold in the attic, or there's just minor things like a plug, an outlet doesn't work in the house, or things like that. So it's good for the homeowner to know what's wrong with the house uh before they get in, so they're not shocked by the time they uh they move in and they're like, well, we didn't know any of this was going on. So it's a good time for the buyers to find out what is what the house has, the nitty-gritty of the house, but also um we can use it for negotiations. So, say for example we pay $500,000 for a house and there's

Inspections And Negotiation Leverage

SPEAKER_01 13:25

a big inspection issue, then we can offer $450,000 for a house um or have the thing repaired before the buyers move in. So it's just a good a good tool to have for buyers.

SPEAKER_00 13:36

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 13:39

Okay. Um okay, would you rather live in a tree house, a houseboat, or a castle?

SPEAKER_00 13:48

Oh I think you know me well enough to so I pick castle. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:54

I know. You're a little princess. You're like, that's perfect for me. So why would you choose a castle over the other things?

SPEAKER_00 14:01

Because I think it's like a really nice like place to live. Yeah. And it's like a really like nice house, and I think it would just be pretty nice.

SPEAKER_01 14:12

What if it was like the old medieval castle where it's like you're living on like concrete, like rock floors and things like that? It's not like all luxurious inside.

SPEAKER_00 14:20

Oh well then now I'll pick something else. I'll pick the houseboat.

SPEAKER_01 14:25

Yeah, the house boat would be kinda cool.

SPEAKER_00 14:27

Yeah, that'd be actually kinda cool.

SPEAKER_01 14:29

Yeah. Um, okay. What's next? What's next? We might not make it through all ten. I'm gonna just I'm gonna keep this, um, but yeah, just keep going.

SPEAKER_00 14:37

Maybe. Okay. My sixth question is when you sell a house, how do you feel?

SPEAKER_01 14:45

Good. Um, yeah. Selling a house has a bunch of different feelings. There's one feeling of of just being done and completed and getting people the, you know, either the sellers are finished and they're done and they can move on to their next thing, or the buyers can move into the house. So there's some excitement there. Um, there's also kind of it's no one talks about this, but there's like a little bit of a breakup with sellers and buyers because you talk like it, you don't know. Well, you know this because you see us uh doing it all the time, but you hang out with buyers and sellers all the time. When you're under contract, you're selling a house, you're buying a house, you're talking all the time, you're texting all the time, and then all of a sudden the sale closes, and then you don't talk to them anymore. Like they're they've like moved on, and they're it's not

What Closing A Sale Feels Like

SPEAKER_01 15:28

bad. It's the you know, we they needed me to help buy and sell, but they didn't they don't need me anymore. So it's kind of like a weird breakup that we just stop talking. So it's bittersweet. It's always good to have a sale, but it's um it is hard because the clients mom and I have are we're pretty lucky to have really good clients and we we miss them when we're done with them, so or when they're done with us. So anyways, feels good, feels good. Some are some are hard transactions that you're just like I needed this done, and some are uh really easy that you're like, Oh, we could have kept this going for a while. But um, okay, okay. What do you think is the most important room in the house and why?

SPEAKER_00 16:07

Hmm. Well if I was like way younger, I think I would say my room. But now I think I would say the most important is I think the kitchen.

SPEAKER_01 16:21

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 16:22

Because it's important because then we can actually have like food and like and have water in a lot of things.

SPEAKER_01 16:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:30

So we can like actually like eat, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:34

Yeah, and that's where we hang out a lot, so you get kind of the family together and all that sort of stuff. So yeah. Look at you just answering questions like an adult. You might just take Cody's job here. Um You might be he might be just trying to trying to get in on the podcast next week and we won't let him. But um Okay, what's that what's next? What's next? We got one or two more.

SPEAKER_00 16:57

Wait, isn't it your oh wait, no, it's mine.

SPEAKER_01 16:59

Uh yeah, you just answered that amazing kitchen question.

SPEAKER_00 17:02

Oh. So question seven. Why does it take a while to sell a house?

SPEAKER_01 17:10

Oh, great question. Because right now it's taking longer and longer to sell a house. And so, and it's been pretty frustrating for sellers uh to sit through that. Because back uh you probably don't know this, but back during COVID, you sell the house like within a couple days. Like it was like people were begging to buy the houses. So now homes sit on the market longer. So it's really economics based. Um buyers need to have the right pricing, and without getting into the nitty-gritty of stuff, you have to have different mortgage rates, and the lower the mortgage rate, the more the buyer can afford and and comfortably. So, you know, it's really economically uh based. So um what were you qu asking? My mind went blank for a second.

SPEAKER_00 17:50

I was saying, why does it take a while to sell a house?

SPEAKER_01 17:53

So right now, because the rates are

Why Homes Take Longer To Sell

SPEAKER_01 17:55

higher, uh, our mortgage rates are higher, that means that a buyer has less uh money to work with. It means that they pay more in a mortgage payment to buy a home than if the rates were lower, they can afford more and afford uh things at an easier monthly price. So because rates are high, there's a lot of economic uncertainty with the uh uh the stuff over in the Middle East and those sort of things, that it causes buyers to be a bit a bit more hesitant to buy, and then that means they just sit and wait out the market versus actually going in to buy. So there's a lot of factors that go in, but that's the generic uh overall thing. Mortgage rates kind of determine how long a house takes to sell. And if the house is priced too high, then you know buyers know that and they're not gonna buy it at that price.

SPEAKER_00 18:38

So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:41

Um okay. You have a million dollars to buy a house. What are you looking for? Uh what do you look for in a house for a million bucks?

SPEAKER_00 18:53

Um, so for a million dollars, I'm not looking for like a giant big house or like kind of like a small like apartment. I'm kind of looking for like a nice house, but not like too nice. Mm-hmm. That it's like over this half. I was like maybe just like kind of like ours. It's just kind of like one of those like in between that's like nice.

SPEAKER_01 19:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:13

And it's like the same as like nice and then it's in between.

SPEAKER_01 19:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:18

So I would kind of have I would have one like ours. Yeah, I would kinda. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:23

You're a very homebody type person. You know, you like that like what you've got, you know, which is good. You're not like looking for some something crazy fancy. Yes, we have a nice house, but it's not like the nicest and it's not like the big nice. The big you like comfort, homie.

SPEAKER_00 19:40

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:42

Um, I'm gonna ask you another one. Uh what because I think this is important. What what's something you think that grown-ups get wrong about picking a house?

SPEAKER_00 19:51

Um let's see here.

SPEAKER_01 19:57

It's been a while since we bought a house, and I think you were super young when we were. Yeah, I was like so.

SPEAKER_00 20:01

I was like a baby. Um something that they get wrong when they buy a house. I think. They just I think the thing that they get wrong is that they kind of buy it instead of really getting into the house to see how it is, so they kind of get it wrong that it's like it's not the right house for them.

SPEAKER_01 20:20

Hmm. That's good. Yeah, it's funny you you mentioned that because they have a lot of we find that a lot with buyers is you spend so little time in a house that you're spending a ton of money on. You go through and you spend like 15, 20 minutes in the house, and then you make this huge offer, and then you see it maybe once or twice more, and then you move in, and then it's like, here's this huge house with this big payment, and you've been in the house like three times. Yeah, I know. It's crazy. It's crazy that that happens. I feel like sometimes you drive a car more often, like you test drive a car for longer than what you do to buy a house to make sure to make sure it fits. We just had recent clients that said you should be able to stay the night in a house when you're buying. You should be able to be like just sleep in it, feel like at what it's like and all that stuff. It sounds like but it's like you should be able to spend some more time in it. So, because it's such a big purchase. But yeah. Um okay, non-real estate related, anything you want to report, what do you what do you have going on in your life? What's because we're gonna wrap up here, but I just want to see if there's anything you've wanted to get on this podcast for a long time, right?

SPEAKER_00 21:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:26

Yeah. So how does it feel? How does it feel to be on it?

SPEAKER_00 21:29

Feels kind of good and it's pretty fun to be on this podcast.

SPEAKER_01 21:33

Do you think you could uh you think you could be a regular visitor?

SPEAKER_00 21:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:39

Yeah? You join Cody and I sometimes?

SPEAKER_00 21:42

Yeah. Maybe Rory could come in.

SPEAKER_01 21:44

That's true. Rory's Rory's kind of the teenager though. You know, he's kind of in that teeny like everything's like. He's not like less hesitant. Exactly, exactly. So any uh big plans in Arizona when you're over there? Any or are you just hanging out with cousins?

SPEAKER_00 22:00

Since it's gonna be really hot, I think of just hanging out and in the pool.

SPEAKER_01 22:03

Yeah. Is this the trip you're looking forward to, or what else what else are you looking forward to this summer?

SPEAKER_00 22:08

I'm looking forward to our family beach trip a lot because then we can like get um like be with the family a lot.

SPEAKER_01 22:16

Yeah, that's fine. Cool. Well, anything else you got for me, Cora?

SPEAKER_00 22:22

Um I want to ask you one more question.

SPEAKER_01 22:25

Okay, go for it.

SPEAKER_00 22:26

I have one more.

SPEAKER_01 22:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 22:29

Um, what advice would you give to someone that is becoming a realtor?

SPEAKER_01 22:37

Oh, man. Uh, I think the number one advice I would give is to treat it like a business. I think in our industry, and Cora, you don't know this necessarily, but um in our industry it's easy to get into. Like you you just it it you you take tests and you pay a couple thousand dollars, but relatively easy to get into this thing. But people don't really um take it seriously. They treat it like a hobby or they treat it like um we're notorious for not treating a this as a business, and what happens with that is you you then if you treat something like a hobby, you're gonna act like a hobby, which means you're not gonna be successful. So really like my biggest suggestion is when you get in this line of work to go in with the mindset of how are you gonna grow

Advice For New Realtors

SPEAKER_01 23:17

this business and and do this um long term versus kind of like when the because what you see a lot is when things are the housing market is really hot, the buyer the agents come into the market because they're like, Oh, I can sell two or three homes a year and and be fine and make some travel money and things like that, but then when times are tough, you really have to have a structure in place to um to be able to be successful at it. So get with a good brokerage like ours, and um you will you will be on the right track. Um are you you don't want to be a real estate agent, yeah?

SPEAKER_00 23:50

Maybe I'm kind of thinking about it.

SPEAKER_01 23:52

After this podcast, you're like, okay, okay. You'll just be a podcaster, you could be a so a social media influencer, that's more like you. But um well, when you're all famous with your friends, what's gonna happen? Do you think your friends are gonna be calling you when you're ultimately their parents are watching this and then they show their kids show their show their kids?

SPEAKER_00 24:11

I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 24:13

We'll see how it goes. We'll see how it goes. You could be YouTube famous.

SPEAKER_00 24:16

It's hard to predict my friends.

SPEAKER_01 24:18

That's true. That's true. Pretty hard. Your friends are kind of crazy. I love them, but they're crazy.

SPEAKER_00 24:25

Yeah, they could be watching this.

SPEAKER_01 24:28

Um well, uh, thank you, Cora. If you guys are um still with us, go log on to uh YouTube, so uh Spotify, Apple, go to Venture with Joe and Cody. This week is a little unique. We're gonna have this is gonna be uh streaming on Facebook uh as well, but this is also our podcast because I don't Cora has a limited amount of time. She's a very busy woman and uh was unable to do both a live stream and a and a podcast. But thanks, babe. And um I will uh until next time, guys. Cody will be back. We'll get his ugly mug on here compared to Cora. Um but I I'm sure Cora will be back with us at some point this summer because she's got some time. Right. Um okay. Love you, girl. We'll talk to you soon.

SPEAKER_00 25:10

Bye.

SPEAKER_01 25:11

Bye.