THE BACK-UP PLAN

WELCOME 

Spring Forward

Happy spring, everyone! As of Sunday, we’re going to have an extra hour of sunshine every day and I am pumped for it, even though everyone will be tired and cranky for a week afterward. But it will be worth it!

Now, some… interesting thing have been happening in the Glenndaverse and I’m going to explain them all in a minute. They dovetail into today’s topic which is having a back-up plan. As positive as I am, as upbeat as I like to keep it, in real estate, you must be prepared to live by Mr. Murphy and his law that anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.

In better news, Glennda’s Gurus is back and today is a real treat as I talk with Tracy Tutor!

Buckle up and here we go.

THE REALITY OF REAL ESTATE

Never Saw This One Coming

Y’all. (Deep breath.) Y’ALL. I have been up against a situation I never once anticipated.

I have been in jail—Instagram jail, that is.

Now, to backtrack, I talk all the time about the business savvy of people like the Kardashians and Taylor Swift. These women have billions of followers and the good sense to have created redundancies for keeping up with their fans. A big reason the Kardashians have been so successful is that they have a master email address list of all their followers so they don’t have to turn to social media or the media proper to send updates on what they’re doing.

I don’t have Swift or Kardashian kinds of of numbers, so it didn’t occur to me to create that kind of email list for social media, although I obviously do this for my business. Since quite a few of y’all do follow me, I tried to get verified on Instagram as an extra layer of protection. They wouldn’t do it because my driver’s license says my former married name (Glennda Baker LeBlanc) and my Instagram is Glennda Baker Atlanta. But I figured, That’s not such a big deal, because who’s going to impersonate a real estate agent from Atlanta?

Well, guess what? I have been locked out of my Instagram because someone reported me for impersonating ME. The thing of it all was that I wasn’t even nekkid on Instagram! I didn’t post anything mean-spirited or controversial. One of my last posts was just me doing a Reese’s Cup tasting challenge, not exactly blue content. Oh, my stars and stripes, I am so frustrated, especially because the fake Glennda Baker accounts are still standing! And worst of all, they’ve been trying to sell Bitcoin to my followers!

For everyone who’s been in touch to see what’s up, no, I didn’t unfollow everyone intentionally and I am so sorry if this hurt your feelings! Fortunately, we finally got my good name restored, but in case anything every goes sideways again, you can always find me here on this newsletter, as well as:

TikTok

Facebook

My website

My podcast

Homes.com

X, the app formerly known as Twitter

YouTube

My private advice portal

Estate Media

Or, shouting into the void outside the Meta offices if Facebook and Instagram go down again like they did yesterday. I’ll be the blonde lady in the star sweater.

And yes, I will be starting a mailing list.

I always want to be the good example, but in this case, I have to settle for being a horrible warning.

@glenndabaker

You can literally generate business anywhere… #Glenndabaker #RealEstate #AtlantaRealEstate #Dating #Single #matchdotcom #G#GoogleGlenndaGlenndaTok

ONCE UPON A TIME WITH GLENNDA

Always Have a Plan B

We’re going to talk about why you should always have a Plan B today because real estate can be a bumpy ride. I learned this the hard way, considering someone died in each of my first three transactions.

I kid you not, during my very first sale, the seller died before the closing. In my second, the listing agent passed away after catching pneumonia. And in my third deal, the buyer perished in a tragic accident. This was December of the year I first started and I’d been named Agent of the Month. My broker had to pull me aside and say in all her years of selling real estate no one had died and they were looking at me like I was some kind of Black Widow. When everyone arrived alive at the closing table for my fourth deal, I was jubilant!

One of the most likely places for it all to go off the rails is the financing portion, so it’s crucial to know who you’re working with because you don’t want a lender who over-promises and can’t get the deal done.

Now, let’s say the home you’re selling is in bad condition. You need to have your seller do a pre-listing inspection and you give this to potential buyers so there’s no surprises when it’s appraised. This is so important when you’ve got a first-time buyer and they’re putting down 3-5%. If it under-appraises and the seller isn’t willing to make up the difference, you’re not going to close.

The common perception is to come up with a back-up plan after Plan A goes south. No. No, ma’am. You should always have a Plan B before things get bad. That’s why I encourage agents to take formal back-up offers and try to get their offer accepted, just in case, because this happens over and over again.

I had a buyer who wanted a house and he did not want to be in a back-up position, so he didn’t want to negotiate that deal. His pride and ego just wouldn’t allow it because he thought it made him look weak. When the first deal fell through and the house came back on the market, it went right back under contract with the second set of buyers who’d had the good sense to negotiate a back-up deal. And then that one fell through, my buyer said, “I’ll just pay cash, whatever they want, and I’ll waive my due diligence.” (The deals kept falling through because it was two lots and it was hard to get the neighbors to agree to what the potential buyers wanted.)

Had my buyer just listened to me and negotiated a back-up offer in the first place, we’d have never been in this position. And now he wanted to pay $125,000 more than he’d have paid, without the protection of the inspection. I said to him, “Are you sure this is what you want? You do understand that you’ve removed the due diligence, even though I told you not to.” He looked at me and said, “You know what? This was my ego talking, let’s let it go.”

Recently my colleague Elizabeth found herself and her clients in the same kind of situation. Her buyers wanted one particular home and the listing agent refused to take any back-up offers. Elizabeth begged them to reconsider, but no luck. That listing agent said, “Our offer is as strong as battery acid and we don’t need a back-up.” Seven days later, that offer was in the crapper so he called Elizabeth and she had to tell him, “Sorry, but they’re under contract elsewhere.” It doesn’t matter if you’re the listing agent or the buying agent, back-up offers are a must on all counts.

A while ago, I personally was under contract for a what would be a rental property. Post-inspection, I wanted $12,000 for repair resolution. The listing agent told me, “We have a back-up offer and it’s for more than your response. I’ll give you $5000 credit, take it or leave it.” I took it and I closed on that house.

Something can always go wrong, even if it’s as small as a seller not leaving that home cleaned out and broom-swept. Last year on walk-through day, one day before closing, my buyer was upset that the seller hadn’t taken out the trash and left a broken drying rack in the laundry room. She said it gave her “a bad feeling,” and she ultimately didn’t buy the home because it wasn’t in the promised condition. Imagine being the listing agent and blowing your home sale because no one took out the trash! This happened with my buyers last November and then again last December. In thirty years of real estate, this never happened once, and then I had it twice in a row.

Would this have gone down if we were still at a 3% interest rate? Who knows. But if those listing agents had had a Plan B, where they sent someone in with push brooms and Hefty bags, they’d have closed those deals.

But, on the bright side, at least no one died?

GLENNDA’S GURUS

Nothing But Million Dollar Listings Here!

Forgive me if I fangirl, but how can I not? Today I am speaking with the one and only Tracy Tutor of Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles! Tracy has over 23 years of experience selling real estate and she’s one of the biggest agents at Douglas Elliman. She has more than $3 billion in total sales volume, moving the kind of homes that will take your breath away, and she’s ranked among the top luxury agents in the country. In her own words, she is anything but vanilla, so let’s see what else she has to say!

GLENNDAISM

Today’s Wisdom

If you’re buying or selling, connect with me on Homes.com, where you can find listings like this one. This place is just a dream. It’s in the Indian Hills subdivision, where they’re doing a ton of regenerative in-field building.

What makes this place so special is that the builder filled this home with quality finishes. Every bit of it’s luxurious and beautiful! Everything you can see and feel is just top of the line, unlike a lot of the other homes here where it’s tier one finishes and if you want upgrades, you must do them yourself. If you’re looking for more, look no further!