Keys & Credit
The no-fluff real estate and mortgage podcast that helps you make smarter moves with confidence.
Hosted by Realtor Bill Jerikovsky and Mortgage Lender Barb Miller, this show cuts through the jargon and industry hype to bring you honest, practical insights on buying, selling, and financing homes. Whether you're a first-time buyer, seasoned investor, or just trying to decode your credit score—Bill and Barb keep it real with bite-sized episodes.
💡 Real answers. 🙅♂️ No sales pitches. 🏡 Just straight talk on homes, loans, and everything in between.
New episodes drop weekly.
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Barb Miller NMLS ID: 329237
Guaranteed Rate, Inc. dba Rate, NMLS #2611
Bill Jerikovsky RE/MAX RESULTS
This Podcast is edited and produced by Kody Hughes - Focal Point Media
FocalPointKody@gmail.com - 320-224-9828
Keys & Credit
Real Estate Rescue: Last-Minute Saves and Agent Horror Stories
Ever wonder what separates elite real estate professionals from those who just collect commissions? The difference becomes crystal clear when deals hit turbulence—and in this revealing episode, Barb and Bill pull back the curtain on recent transactions that would have fallen apart without their expertise and determination.
We dive into "Barb for the win" moments, including a near-disaster closing saved with just 24 hours to spare when insurance needed last-minute adjustments. Most lenders would have delayed closing by a week or more, but not Barb. You'll hear how her experience and relationships made the impossible happen, keeping buyers in their dream home and sellers on schedule.
The manufactured home negotiation story will have you shaking your head—a listing agent who didn't understand the property type ended up costing his sellers nearly $30,000 in required improvements after contract acceptance. Without Bill's strategic negotiation skills and Barb's specialized lending knowledge, this transaction would have collapsed entirely.
Perhaps most eye-opening are the stories about agents and lenders who actively discourage qualified buyers. We share multiple examples of clients told they "weren't ready" by other professionals, only to successfully close on homes within weeks of working with us. Sometimes these discouraging voices even come from family members with hidden agendas!
Whether you're buying, selling, or just real estate curious, this episode provides invaluable guidance on selecting trustworthy professionals. Learn how to spot "hack agents," verify credentials, test responsiveness, and ultimately find representatives who'll fight for your interests rather than taking the path of least resistance.
Ready to stop getting standard real estate advice and start hearing the unfiltered truth? Listen now, and discover why our 100% close rate isn't just talk—it's the result of putting clients first, even when the path gets challenging.
Welcome to Keys and Credit, the no fluff, no nonsense real estate and mortgage podcast. I'm Barb, your straight talking lender.
Speaker 2:I am Bill the no bullshit realtor.
Speaker 1:We're here to give you the honest truth about buying, selling and everything in between. Yes, we are. Whether you're a first time buyer, a seasoned investor or just real estate curious, you're in the right place.
Speaker 2:What are we going to talk about today, Barb?
Speaker 1:I think we're going to talk about the last few weeks.
Speaker 2:The last few weeks have been absolutely bananas. But I want to talk about honestly what do we call it when we put the social media post on? What was that? It was Barb for the win.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, maybe Barb for the win.
Speaker 2:Okay, so we had a closing last week yeah, a few days ago, and we almost lost it, right. But barb, the day before, 24 hours before, just kind of came through and kicked some ass. Why don't you explain what happened and what barb did for the win on this one?
Speaker 1:Well, it was a little crazy. We needed to shake up their insurance and we got it reduced the day prior to closing to reduce the amount they needed for closing, and we were able to do that the day prior and make it a go, and that just goes to show.
Speaker 2:So think about this If you didn't do what you did, how far out would we have had to push closing? Do you think Maybe a week, a week, right? So if it was a different lender, a different person in that situation, do you think they could have pulled it off in 24 hours? Probably not. Probably not If somebody else was in the situation that they were in, because we can't the hard part about this.
Speaker 2:We can't name names, no, so we don't want to say names, but if someone was else's and someone else was in that situation, we'd be moving, closing a week, if not more. Perhaps because if you are not the experienced, awesome local lender that Barb is, when something like that happens, you get pushed to the side right Until the problems are solved. You get pushed to the side. They'll put you at the bottom of the list.
Speaker 1:Well, oftentimes it'll just go in the corner of the desk because maybe they don't want to deal with it, because it's maybe a little too hard, so they just want to deal with the easy stuff.
Speaker 2:They'll wait for us to fix it, which would be maybe a day or two, right? Instead of you fixing it, telling your underwriters to get their shit together, we're doing it tomorrow, no matter what, In a nicer way. In a nicer way. Yeah, barb's fangs come out, don't let her lie. But when we were sitting at the closing table, they asked should we panic? And I told them we didn't need to panic because we've done so much more in so much less time.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Right, I mean, granted, this was a big one. And what Barb pulled off in a day which was changing pretty much everything, Right, right, pulled that off in a day we still closed, got it funded, everything was fine. Um, we've done worse. We've done way worse. We you and I have both been sitting there, sometimes going. Is he gonna work today?
Speaker 1:but we got a hundred percent close a hundred percent close rate, that's another thing.
Speaker 2:A hundred percent close rate, let's talk about the one. The one the week before, that right, the week before, yeah, um, so this one. I'm just going to be mean. So this agent had no idea on how to list the property he was listing, right?
Speaker 1:Right, it was not a typical home. It was not a typical, it was a manufactured home.
Speaker 2:Yep manufactured home. When you list manufactured homes there's a lot of details that go into the listing before you put it on the market. Now this guy did not know all the stuff needed to happen, so I knew what needed to happen. I knew it wasn't there, but I put the offer in anyways Once they accepted. I knew it's going to sound terrible, but I knew we had them.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, you had to coach them.
Speaker 2:I had to coach them but I knew no matter what we were going to get all the stuff we needed because we were under contract and this guy there was an ego there and he didn't want to look bad and I was so using that against him. It was so bad. But anyways, this one, we went through it. We moved.
Speaker 1:Closing twice, we moved closing out twice Because of the sell side.
Speaker 2:And it wasn't just me that was renegotiating, it was you. We had to put you involved too as a lender, because a lender needs specific things for manufactured homes. This other side agent team there's a few of them didn't know what to do, even though we were coaching them. We got them through it and it was fine, but without the lender involved. Right, if we were a bad team without the lender involved, it never would have closed. Because, they kept asking why? Why do we need this? Why?
Speaker 1:But you need like a chief negotiator, like Bill, I'm over here, negotiate the terms.
Speaker 2:But that one. That one is what do we call that Cycle analyst? You get to read who you're working with. I knew our buyer really wanted it. I talked to the agent and the agent team it's hard to do this without saying names, but I talked to them both. I realized who we were working with, put an offer in anyways, knowing we didn't have what we needed, and once the offer was accepted they said they said okay, well, here's all the stuff you need. I said no, no, no, and it was to the tune of like twenty nine thousand dollars they had to spend to get this to close because they did it wrong.
Speaker 2:Oh, waiting for the buyer I mean, come on, you can't beat that, you really can't. Oh, so I got it written in my notes. Is take advantage of bad agents for the buyer. I mean, come on, you can't beat that, you really can't. Oh, so I got it written in my notes. Is take advantage of bad agents for the benefits of our people. Sometimes you have to do that. I mean, if you think about it, that's what we did, that whole transaction. I mean, we kind of worked them over. Now, if it was a different team say it was a mediocre agent and a mediocre lender do you think that would have closed what we just pulled off with them? No, I don't think so either. No, I think it would have been honestly shot down within the first couple of weeks. Right, yeah, oh, the uncle bob moment. Do you remember that?
Speaker 2:go ahead and okay so previous episodes we were talking about Drunk Uncle Bob. Now I was out with buyers a few weeks ago and it wasn't Uncle Bob, but this is an Uncle Bob moment. So we got under contract and guys that are listening to this, you know this is you. You're the only person that knows this, is you? Just so you know. We got under contract. We were almost under contract. I talked with the agent. We submitted our offer. She said, yeah, this is great, I'm going over there to get signatures Right.
Speaker 2:So I get a phone call the next morning saying hey, bill, it's so-and-so with ABC Realty. I got to let you know we can't accept your offer. I'm like well, why can't you accept the offer? She says well, father's on title. I went over there and father was there. Father decided that it wasn't smart for them to sell their house without having another house in line, so they're just going to take it off the market Until next year. Until next year. Kids were crying. Kids were crying and they weren't kids, they were just the dad's kids. They're crying because they had an offer. A good offer, a good offer.
Speaker 1:These are good buyers right.
Speaker 2:Solid offer Super. I mean, this was 100% close rate, right? And he just said no, he just said no, and then I have to call and explain that to them, to our buyers, how?
Speaker 1:do you explain that?
Speaker 2:Hey guess what you got the house. It's going to be great. Hey, guess what you got the house? It's going to be great. We'll have a signed contract tomorrow. Start celebrating, start packing. Oops, the seller doesn't want to sell, call back and say, hey, I got bad news for you. Dad doesn't want to sell the house, he doesn't want his kids. I mean, give me a break, man, stay home, just stay home, for the love of God. And that wasn't the only one. I mean they lost.
Speaker 1:Well, that's super hard too, for the listing agent too to have to call the buyer's agent. And not to mention their expenses that they have involved in listing this property.
Speaker 2:That's what she said too, she because nothing's free it costs?
Speaker 1:you know, it costs money quite a bit to get these things done.
Speaker 2:And she was, she was, she was calling me and she's like I don't even know how to explain this. I'm like explain, where's my contract? We, just we. We had an agreement yesterday, 10 hours ago, you know I mean I have a question for you, barb, the lender with rateinccom.
Speaker 2:So there was a situation where an agent again hard to do without names there was an agent that submitted to you a purchase agreement, okay, and you didn't know if it was correct, so you had to pull up a correct purchase agreement. I'm saying this right Whose purchase agreement did you pull up?
Speaker 1:Well, yours Well I knew that there was errors within it, but yes, I did look at one of yours to compare.
Speaker 2:So, to compare contracts, you pulled up one of mine to make sure this other one was correct, and there was theirs. I'm not going to be able to walk out of this room because my head's going to be so big after that one. But there was another situation a couple weeks ago where another agent called me and asked if I would look at a purchase agreement for them. And this was, I mean, I don don't know. A couple weeks after you're, you know, you told me that you did it with theirs.
Speaker 2:And it makes you realize because sometimes in this industry we all have it you kind of wonder if you're supposed to be here. Right, there's all this stuff going on. Everybody is this self-proclaimed, I am the best, it's like you know, do I belong here? And then when stuff like that happens, right, I mean you say, hey, we compared your contract to make sure this other one was correct. Another agent calls and says, hey, will you take a look at this for me to make sure it's okay and tell me what you think? I mean it makes you feel good. It really does. You know, it's kind of nice.
Speaker 1:But so tell me, Bill, how would one go about shopping for the right realtor?
Speaker 2:I don't know, how do you get through the bullshit, how do you get through that bullshit? Well, I would say how do you get through the bullshit?
Speaker 1:well, I would say, if you're shopping for a realtor that's going to represent you, you know there's no.
Speaker 2:I Barb might be swearing at me under her breath. So how would you shop for a realtor so you wouldn't have to deal with all this crap that we just talked about? How would you?
Speaker 1:well, yeah, you're gonna want to ask lots of questions and you're gonna want to look at their track history, maybe find out how long they've been in the business, uh, see if they maybe have any google reviews. Right, if they don't have any google reviews, uh, and they've been in the business for six months, I'd maybe think about who you're using, because hey, cody, can you pull up how many reviews I have real quick, barb's got quite a few too.
Speaker 2:Just throw that in there when you get a chance. I did hear today from this young man at a gym that we were talking as we're on a treadmill and he told me it's not what you know, it's who you know, absolutely, absolutely that one. See, you don't realize your statements when they make an impact with people.
Speaker 1:Young man, yeah, so it's based on reviews and you'd maybe look at the reviews how long they've been in the business. But what if you have that?
Speaker 2:guy that says that you're sitting next to a bar or you're, you know, he's a family member or something and he says he's the best. The bee's knees, she's the bee's knees we are the only person you call ever.
Speaker 1:Well, maybe, if they've been in it for a while. Well, maybe, if they've been in it for a while. But you also want to have a chief negotiator on your side, because they're going to negotiate many things within that contract for you, such as your purchase price, if you're going to have closing costs, when your closing date's going to be, if there's going to be a written statement.
Speaker 2:If you need an affidavit of affixation, if you need you have 73 reviews 73 reviews. And a full five stars All five, every single one, all five stars, every single one of them?
Speaker 1:How about Bart Miller?
Speaker 2:I'm about to put a one star in there, just throw it out. You suck at, don't you dare? I want to. So this I looked up on the stuff we were talking about this morning, cody. Right, I looked up how to, or give me an explanation on, hack agents simplest way to put it what is a hack real estate agent? And it came back lack proper qualifications or experience, but present themselves as experts.
Speaker 2:Okay, so think about that I could tell you all kinds of stuff that you want to hear. I could say you know what? I'm the best. I've been doing this forever. There's no other agent that knows more than me. Don't go with anybody else and I don't know shit. Think about that. You wouldn't know. Well, like that one showing.
Speaker 1:You went on where it was a revolving door and there was lots of buyers coming through and you had a realtor in the street going from car to car to car.
Speaker 2:That's on social media. You've got to look it up that one's funny Trying to find their people.
Speaker 1:Yep find the people In his suit.
Speaker 2:Oh that poor guy.
Speaker 1:And you couldn't imagine what he was saying. Oh, you're not them, so he goes to the next car. I did yeah. Did you see that one?
Speaker 2:I did so his people showed up. It was like a lifted Dodge and like this tiny little Honda Civic okay, I mean, read the room, know your people, type of thing right and he walks over to them in a full suit and tie and as he's talking to them, his jacket comes off, his tie comes off. You know, you could tell he was starting to, you know, to come into his own a little bit, but I felt so bad for him.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, it was like 10 minutes of him going from car to car to car to find his people. But before they got there I'd watch him go up to groups, right, because a lot of us you can't tell we're agents. I mean, I show up, I look, sometimes I'm in a hat, sometimes I ride the Harley, I it depends.
Speaker 1:Are you the plumber Right? I mean, are you a contractor here? Are you the?
Speaker 2:inspector. You know how many times I've heard when I pull up on the bike so are you the buyers? I'm like nope, I'm the agent. It's okay, I don't need a suit to prove who I am, but he would go up to those people and see if they were his people. Oh, I felt so bad for him. Oh, it was, I felt so bad. But you can tell he was brand new and we've all been there. You know you start somewhere, but I felt that guy, oh, but anyways. So back to that description. Hang on, let me find it again. There was one more um bear with me here. Well, and I can't, I would say stuff in memory yeah, uh.
Speaker 1:So that's how you would maybe pick out your realtor, because they're more than just opening the doors. They're going to be on your side and your chief negotiator To pick your lender.
Speaker 2:How do you pick a lender?
Speaker 1:You're going to interview them. You're going to see if this is going to work. You're going to send them maybe some questions about your loan and see if they respond and how fast they're going to see if this is going to work. You're going to send them maybe some questions about your loan and see if they respond.
Speaker 2:But like and how fast they're going to respond Like agents, though there's 100,000 gazillion lenders out there. Why not? How in the hell do you find Barb out of all that? That's what we're and that's what we're trying to do with. The podcast is get this stuff out there so people can see. How would you find what are you doing over there, cody? I had Barb's reviews pulled up. How many does she have? I moved past it 23. You just started that like recently. Good job, I know. I mean you should have a crap ton more because you've been in it for a long. Barb only has 23 because she just started.
Speaker 2:The google review is like a year ago six months ago well pushing pushing, asking for them, because, because they, really do um help grow your business?
Speaker 1:yep right but anyways.
Speaker 2:So if I were to look for a lender, I would type in I need to get a home loan. Why doesn't barb show up first?
Speaker 1:well, I should, depending on the market you're looking in.
Speaker 2:Okay, but you're statewide for sure, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, in Minnesota and Wisconsin and Wisconsin, yep.
Speaker 2:So how would I find you if you didn't pop up first? You? Know, what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:Well, in whatever market you're looking in, I would be top of the page because of rate. Okay. But so when you're interviewing lenders, if you're already pre-approved and it's going hey wire, reach out. If you're not pre-approved, reach out to me anyways, and I can help show you the way. Um, but what you'd want to?
Speaker 2:remind me.
Speaker 1:Sorry, sorry, got excited Um, can't use names but you're going to um, so you're going to be interviewing lenders, right, and you're going to maybe send them an email, maybe with some questions, see if they respond or how long it takes them to respond, Right. And then you're going to ask them maybe, how long have you been in the business and you can actually check this is valid. So you can actually check on NMLS, consumer access, and you'd want to, Because if someone says I've been doing this for 15 years and it's really 14 or 16, well, okay, they were close. But if it's really they say I've been doing it for 10, and you look up on there.
Speaker 2:And they've been doing it for five minutes right.
Speaker 1:For two years. Two years ago they were working at target well, they're lying.
Speaker 2:What else might they be? Like a social media producer podcast or something. What else would they be?
Speaker 1:lying about, so you'd want to check that I can see a moment.
Speaker 2:I can see him out of the corner by the door, um, but so with that, say somebody finds you or no? They find somebody else and they put an application with somebody else. We're rolling right into a different transaction here. So they put an application with somebody else and they get turned down and this person, instead of saying hey, let's help you get this figured out, let's figure out the road you have to travel to get pre-approved, they just say you know what? Call back in a year. Should they call you?
Speaker 1:Well, maybe I know the transaction you're talking about, which is awesome.
Speaker 2:This is another fucking barb for the win here.
Speaker 1:That particular transaction, that lender told her I don't feel, you're ready. They really were ready. Their scores were there, their income was there.
Speaker 2:So why did that lender say they weren't ready? You know, Well. I don't know why.
Speaker 1:Maybe, Right. Maybe they were so busy and they didn't want to do this one. Think about that.
Speaker 2:So when you're calling people and they say sorry, I don't think you're ready, sorry, I don't Power in words, I don't think you might not be All that good stuff, give Barb a call Because these people were told from one lender you're not ready. Okay, we'll have to come back to this, we'll circle back whatever you want to call it. They called Barb, they called you.
Speaker 1:They wanted them to save more money. But their credit scores, like I say, were fine.
Speaker 2:They were approvable, they had enough money saved and they didn't have the time.
Speaker 1:No, they didn't.
Speaker 2:They had to be out in July, yeah that was the problem too, was this agent, this lender wasn't listening.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:It was just oh, I don't want to deal with this stuff, so call me later. Barb picks up the phone and says what's going on? That's what's going on. Okay, well, and it was because I remember you said, hey, these guys are pre-approved, and you gave me the back story. I'm like how is that even possible? She's like I don't know who cares.
Speaker 1:And you said go find my house.
Speaker 2:It was like they need it. Yesterday, bill go find him a house and their their search area was the entire state of minnesota. They were switching jobs, and so we did that's exactly what we did. They asked us to do a certain task that nobody else would take on or do, and we did it right, with 100 close rate.
Speaker 1:Right as usual, right that's what I'm saying, you know? I mean, and that lender kept calling her back every two weeks as well, saying, hey, while we were doing it, oh yeah, I didn't know that. Oh yeah, can I help you? No, I've already found something else so I I chuckled with her and said you should send her your closing picture we did it just closed seriously.
Speaker 2:Throw us. Throw the social media one. Yep, absolutely. But that too. There it's hard to break through and find the barbs of lending. It's not just you. There's very good lenders out there right.
Speaker 2:But there are so many more bad ones that could steer you down the wrong path, bring you down the wrong road, give you the wrong information. I mean, and think about it. If someone calls and says you know, I want to get proof for a conventional loan, if it was a different lender they would say you can't get proof for conventional loan. Calls back in six months. Okay, barb says you can't get proof for a conventional, but we have a, b, c, d, e, f, g and gazillion options instead. Right, and usually that's what we do we'll find a, a different option, a different solution and move on Right.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Right, what else we got for Barb for the wins. Hang on, we had an awesome couple weeks. It was fun.
Speaker 1:Well, do you remember back to people squashing your dreams? We had clients. What? It was maybe in Januaryuary, and um their family said use this um sister-in-law aunt who's a realtor, and she said, no, you guys really aren't ready to buy a house because she wasn't in a house.
Speaker 2:Oh that about here in pine. That was here. Yeah, yeah, yeah, just on the road.
Speaker 1:Yep, Yep, and I mean holidays are awkward. That's the one I sent you right. It was past client of ours.
Speaker 2:Yes, that's right.
Speaker 1:Hey, my nephew wants to buy, but let me see how I can peel him away. Yep.
Speaker 2:Yep, and she, I remember that and it want to edit that middle finger out. He was taking a picture back there. That's why I flipped him off, but that was a self-motivated denial Turned down Because she didn't want her family member a house before she could, so she wouldn't help them.
Speaker 1:Well, she just kept saying, no, I don't think you guys are ready yet, but they were perfectly ready, yeah.
Speaker 2:This is the crap that we deal with on a daily, if not weekly, well, weekly if not daily basis. Yeah, you know, is this stuff.
Speaker 1:So if you hear you're not ready, give me a call and I'll show you what you need to do to get ready. Because I, because I understand that the path to homeownership and the goals to homeownership is everyone's dream.
Speaker 2:How many people?
Speaker 1:do you think? We have in the pipeline right now that are getting ready Quite a few, oh yeah, quite a few, just getting ready, Just getting ready, probably 20, 30 maybe, and list-wise too, getting ready to sell their house getting their finances ready to buy a new one that's in addition.
Speaker 2:Yep, I mean it's, and these are people that have been turned down before. Look at who we just got this last week. Okay, they, that was a phone call. Hey, bill, we don't know if we can even start this. What do we do? Where do we go from here? I'm like, well, we start with figuring out your finances, right, figuring out your credit, figuring out if we can buy a house right.
Speaker 2:The next day we were house shopping right, because they called the next day and now we're on house like 30. Um, but that goes to show, just because your family member, somebody says you probably can't do, you might not be able to do it. Call the people that know, the people that actually are going to help you not maybe a sister that's jealous and doesn't want you to buy a house, or, right, you know, a lender that's too busy to delve into, because a lot of that stuff too, we got to delve into their lives. Let's see your finances. Let's see your credit score. Let's see your debt to income ratio. How many trucks do you own?
Speaker 1:And that might be all scary stuff, yeah to them.
Speaker 2:But we're not scary people.
Speaker 1:We're going to be able to help you. To us, that's normal.
Speaker 2:And people are so scared to tell us what they're into.
Speaker 1:Think about that too.
Speaker 2:I mean, I've had that conversation a lot too Well, I don't want you to tell anybody about this stuff, but we're fiduciaries.
Speaker 1:Right, Right from the beginning we can't tell anybody anything.
Speaker 2:The amount of stuff that we know about people is great. Nobody will ever know. They can't. That's just how it goes, right? I heard this over the weekend at a barbecue from colleagues Some agents and lenders don't like what we're doing. Really.
Speaker 1:Really why.
Speaker 2:Because we are truthful and legit.
Speaker 1:Oh.
Speaker 2:And there's so many facades out there, so many agents that pretend or there might be a 10-year experienced agent out there that has 10 years of experience, but they just want a paycheck. They don't care about your representation. And we're telling people how to fire them Right, we're telling people which line to look at. Oh, speaking of that, it was episode four or five. We were talking about some legal stuff in the contracts. Um, we cited chapter 82.66 of Minnesota statutes subdivision. Subdivision two, section four, is the cancellation statute. Okay, it's in there. It's not fake, it's real. Look it up, get mad all you want. People can fire you, um, or you can fire agents, um, but they don't like that. Barb Like. If somebody turns them down, barb can get them approved Because Barb has more experience, barb has more knowledge. So that is, we have lots more to talk about. That is it for this one, because we keep going and going and going. Rabbit hole is done. We've climbed out. Barb has the outro Exit.
Speaker 1:Thanks for tuning in to Keys and Credit, where the only thing isn't Bleep Thanks, how about?
Speaker 2:you do the outro. Thank you, come again.
Speaker 1:Thanks for tuning in to Keys and Credit, where the only thing inflated isn't the market, it's your knowledge. If you found this helpful, share it with a friend and leave us a review. It helps us more than you know. More than you know.