Jacob Davis  00:00

Jacob T. Davis is here with. This is my first ever podcast. Welcome to the Jacob T Davis podcast. That’s what we’re gonna call it for now. I got my man Jared Evenson. He is a Lender Services the Palouse area currently located in Spokane, Washington. Jared, how are you doing?

Jarod Evenson  00:23

I’m great, man. Yeah, we got to, we got to come up with a good name for your podcast so

Jacob Davis  00:28

Well, so I’ve had a few different ideas. All Day Er’ Day Podcast was one. The, I think that’s the only idea have come up with the Jacob T Davis Real Estate Show. So, I’ve got a few different ideas. But I think for right now, I’m going to call it the Jacob T Davis Podcast. So, Jared, what are you seeing with interest rates? Currently? How is that our interest rates? I mean, they they’ve been saying they’re gonna go down. Do you think that’s going to actually happen?

Jarod Evenson  01:10

You know, I got my magic crystal ball over here on my desk, it is telling me yes, they’re gonna go down. It’s been a, it’s been a wild ride, right? What was it this time last year, everybody in the world was saying rates, rates are gonna go down and, and all they did was go up for a year. I don’t know why people were saying last year rates were gonna go down. And it didn’t make sense. There was no market indicators, saying we’re gonna see things get better. It was just everybody wanted them to. So, and then everybody starts talking about inflation. And that’s why rates are going up. Right? It is what it is. But this year, A., it’s an election year, right? We’ve already seen rates come down to right about the point that everyone was predicting that we’re going to be down to by the end of this year, right? Two months ago, people were saying you might see rates in the low sixes by the end of 2024. Well, it’s the very beginning of 2024. And we’re basically right there. Right. So, my prediction, again, from the last three election years, three or four election years I’ve been in this business, we’ve always seen improvements in rates. So, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see things you know, rates. Start with the number five, low fives, you know, I don’t think we’re gonna see anything that starts with a four. But, you know, my expectation is a little higher than what the market is predicting.

Jacob Davis  02:38

Yeah, it seems like you know, election year they’re probably going to try to lower interest rates as much as they can. Are you seeing buyers looking to get pre-qualified more than last year for it being January? I’ve been busier myself I would say this January way, way busier. I’ve been more busy meeting with sellers lately, which has been interesting. I had I signed two listing agreements yesterday. And are you seeing more buyers getting pre-qualified for, for this time of year?

Jarod Evenson  03:20

Dude, that’s, that’s cool to hear. Yeah, I am, and you know, getting pre-qualified that’s, that’s the whole elephant in the room half the time everybody’s so afraid sometimes. And we can, we can talk about that a little bit. But my pre-qualification pipeline is getting big it’s getting to the point to where I am looking to see houses that pop up on the market for sale. And now I’m going through and I’m like who on my list might want that house because I want to make sure they get the first look at it. Right, we saw we saw that house come on the market a couple of days ago and I remember just kind of you know on last trail Pullman just going through who do I know that might fit this bill? I’ve never really done that before especially in January I usually just let the chips fall as they may, and you guys do your job but now it’s like you know if you’re going to be buying and you got to be ready right? I mean, it’s, it’s not that that buyer’s market anymore where you, depending on the price range where you can sit around and, and take your time and have a bag of Cheetos while you’re waiting to decide to put an offer on a house or not or to even go look at it. Have you on your end like you said you’ve got more listings coming up is what kind of price range are you seeing?

Jacob Davis  04:38

Um, so I’ve been listing so we actually just listed a house in Moscow under 500,000 at 340 louder in Moscow. Little, little plug there for my new listing. Co-listing that with Heather Saltarella, Woodbridge. But anyways, that’s Pretty, it’ll be interesting to see how that does. It’s a pretty cool house on the interiors got a lot of cool wood, which I think wood’s coming back into style. So, it’ll be interesting to see how that goes. But I’ve been signing listings under 500,000, which I think that’s where the buyers are right now. Over six seems like that market is still kind of a buyer’s market, not really a seller’s market, but anything under 600,000 seems to be shifting more to a seller’s market. So that’s kind of what I’m saying,

Jarod Evenson  05:41

Yeah, you know, the buyer’s market, like even those ones that are over 600, like not to discourage sellers, I think it’s still a fair market, you’re still you know, if you’re selling a house in that price range, people still see the value in the prices, you’re putting them at, there’s just less people buying in that range. So, they’re gonna sit longer. You know, my, my house was on the market for six months. And it just went on the contract. And not once did somebody come by and say, hey, it’s priced too high. It just either they couldn’t afford it, or, or whatever it was, I would have dropped the price if, if it was priced too high. That wasn’t the feedback. So yeah, it’s so it’s definitely a price range driven. You know, there’s a big difference. If a house comes on the market for 399,000 hours in Pullman, you gotta hurry to go. Right.

Jacob Davis  06:37

Yeah, and I’ve been, you know, I’ve been trying to coach my buyers a little bit without sounding pushy, but I think the market is changing again. And if you’re under, if you’re gonna have the mindset, you’re looking for a deal under 500,000. I don’t know if you’re gonna get it anymore. Like, you’ve got to kind of be more of the mindset, you got to jump on stuff, I think, just the way things are.

Jarod Evenson  07:04

Two types of clients that I’m seeing, my fingers are off the screen, the two types of clients that I see. One is the one where you first meet with them, or one of your someone on your team first meet with them. And they’re like, okay, you want with these houses go to prequalify. Like, they send them my link or my phone number. And bam, like five minutes later, I get a text like, hey, so and so started an application, and they do it. Then there’s the other one where, you know, you want to know we reach out to him nothing. We reach out to them. Yeah, I’ll get started on that we reach out to them. They haven’t found it yet. How’s pops up? Oh, we want to go see it. Oh, we’re not? Like you have to be that first one that’s just ready to go. It’s easy. The pre court the pre-approval process it, it probably if you’re doing it, you can do it from your cell phone, it takes 15 minutes.

Jacob Davis  07:55

To ask why? I mean, it always seems like that is always the hang up you go, you know, you go show homes with a buyer. And then it’s like, oh, they really like it. But then it’s a week or two weeks or a month before they get pre-qualified. Why is there like, and by that time the house is already sold? Why is there Why are buyers just intimidated? Is it? Is it just paperwork? They don’t like paperwork? What’s the hang up there?

Jarod Evenson  08:26

Yeah, it’s two things, people. I think they’re nervous to get their credit pulled sometimes. And I don’t I don’t blame them. But, but by golly, if you’re buying a house, you got to have your credit pulled, right. So, you know, the, what I hear, you know, it’s gonna affect I don’t want that additional credit inquiry on my credit report. Well, you gotta have it for a house. Now, there’s a caveat to that though. Like I can pre-qualify someone as long as it’s not like an FHA or VA loan with a soft credit pool, which isn’t going to show up anywhere. It’s not going to trigger you’re not going to see a credit inquiry from me nothing. And we can prequalify people that way, which people love that, because they’re protecting the score. And then the cool thing about it is, if we go that route, eventually we do have to do the hard credit poll before we close, but if they have things they need to work on, I haven’t done a hard inquiry for him and I can, I can tell him what to say. Maybe there are some people maybe they’re just afraid to hear what they might already know. But here’s what I found more often not. I have people come to me who think they’re the most qualified buyers in the world, and they don’t qualify. But I have more people come to me who don’t think they’re qualified who actually are and, and those ones are my favorite. I like both of those things because we can get the other client where they need to go. But, but many people don’t think they can buy a house when they’re ready. They are ready.

Jacob Davis  09:55

Yeah, that’s what I found two. It’s usually more people are more qualified than they realize or they’re pretty close, you know? And so

Jarod Evenson  10:05

My favorite question is like, how much am I qualified for? You know how much? How much can you qualify me for most people, I can qualify them for way more than they’re willing to pay. I say most people, but a lot of people. So, my first question, it isn’t like I don’t say here, you’re qualified for $600,000 to buy a house, it’s, it’s Hold on, what are you comfortable with? We start with a payment, what kind of payment are you comfortable with? What kind of downpayment you have. And let’s reverse engineer that. So, you’re not just because you, you, just because I say you can buy 600 doesn’t mean that’s how much you want to spend. So, we’re always catering to what your budget is, which I think is important, too. So, know that? Yeah. But that’s step it’s like just do it, it’s easy. You get it done. That’s usually good for 120 100 120 day, 150 days, something like that. But if that pre-approval is so you don’t buy a house, it expires, all you have to do is turn around and update your credit report. And it’s good to go again. So, it’s easy.

Jacob Davis  11:06

Yeah, I would say you could probably save a lot of money as a buyer, if you just get pre-qualified earlier in the process, so that you’re not especially earlier in the year because I think as the market heats up, things are going to get more expensive and more competitive. So, if you get can go and get pre-qualified now you can save, I think a ton of money by buying now as opposed to in the spring or summer when think if interest rates drop. Pricing is gonna go up, I think you could probably say 20 to 50 to 100,000 depending on which property you’re buying. And

Jarod Evenson  11:44

Everybody’s uncle wants to tell him to wait till rates go down. It’s like buy when you’re ready. That’s I timing the market is I think one of the worst pieces of advice people get from friends and family. You can try to time the market get lucky. But I mean, good luck. I mean, likely not. You know, I always tell people by buy when you’re ready. Don’t

Jacob Davis  12:18

Always be buyin’

Jarod Evenson  12:21

Always be buyin’. whatever what other you got that one in Moscow. So those two listings are in Pullman. Now once you sign.

Jacob Davis  12:34

A condo in Pullman coming on the market. So, it’ll be just over 200,000 and then I’ve got a house in union town that will probably be low, three hundreds. And then I’ve got two manufactured homes in Pullman that I’m working on that will be under 200,000. So, I’m really interested in trying to bring on more affordable housing. I got an offer yesterday on my Ackerman Lane in Colfax, which is new construction under 400,000. So, trying to work through that.

Jarod Evenson  13:18

Colfax has been wildly busy.

Jacob Davis  13:20

Colfax is Yeah, well, because it’s, it’s a lot more affordable than Pullman. So, it’s really, I think for what it you know, for a town in Whitman County, Colfax is brings the most value. I mean, it has a hospital has a grocery store. I think the schools good my kids go to Colfax.

Jarod Evenson  13:47

You went to school there too?

Jacob Davis  13:49

Yeah. Colfax High School.

Jarod Evenson  13:53

Oh, that’s crazy, because it seemed like for a while like Colfax was yeah, it was that outside of Pullman the hottest market and that for like a short minute it was like Palouse was on fire. And, and now I’m seeing you know, they’re both doing good. But I’m seeing more activity in Colfax obviously Colfax is a little bigger.

Jacob Davis  14:10

And I think price has been lower in Colfax compared to like Palouse or Union Town or Colton. So, I’ve always felt like Colfax is a pretty good value for what you get. There hasn’t been a lot of new excuse me, newer homes being built in Colfax. That’s a bit of a issues. There’s just not a lot of nice homes in Colfax. I mean, there are some nice homes, but they don’t tend to come up too often keep them. There hasn’t been a lot of new construction built over the last, you know, 20 years. And so, we need more new construction because I think as price point has gone up it makes more sense to build in Colfax or the other towns where I mean in the past, comps were at like under 200,000. So, if you’re a builder, and you’re like, how can I count this out? And everything is sold under 200,000? I mean, I think new constructions, new construction, I don’t think it should matter what town you’re in. But comps are always a concern. So,

Jarod Evenson  15:21

Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, it always is. Yeah, I noticed that. Those Ackerman he kind of how many houses have they put up, up there? I got to do one of them. That was really cool. Couple months ago, that’s use a local lender, I got to come in and save the day on one. That was fun.

Jacob Davis  15:43

Yeah. So, the builder I’ve worked with Tyson Piershale Is the builder in that. He wasn’t the original builder in that neighborhood. But he’s built, I’ve sold two with him last year in there. And we’ve got a third on the market currently. And so, but we just got an offer. So hopefully, we can put that together. An issue that we are a little concerned about is appraisal, because when you’re looking at cost per square foot on some of this new construction, like that is over 340 a square foot. And so, we’re trying we’re kind of working through that. You know, how to put an agreement together and make sure we don’t have an appraisal issue.

Jarod Evenson  16:40

Yeah, I think I saw that on a I had a client do a new construction and out here in Spokane Valley Liberty Lake area. And it was closer like a 4000 square foot home. But yeah, you’re starting to flirt with the mid 300 per square foot number. It’s I don’t want to say it’s becoming the norm, but it almost seems like it might be.

Jacob Davis  17:03

Well, like in Pullman, those the smaller new construction that I was just looking at up there was one for 339 in Pullman. And then in Palouse, there’s some small new construction that is like 320-330, I think is where that selling so you know, I just think, you know, it’s what it is like, I don’t think we’ll have an appraisal issue. But you know, you never know.

Jarod Evenson  17:33

I’ve had a lot of deals where people thought there’s gonna be appraisal issues and they came back just fine. or higher. You know, I did an appraisal for you guys. Yesterday, we ordered on Tuesday. We got it back Wednesday, to one day for me to get an appraisal. It was crazy speaking.

Jacob Davis  17:52

Yeah. So, like on appraisal on new construction when the home is not finished. We’re talking too early; you’re saying that generally. Appraisal will happen early in the process?

Jarod Evenson  18:08

Yeah, in fact, you know, I actually after I talk to you, I talked to Keith lifer on my team who’s done probably 600 new construction purchases, where, where they’re buying house from a production builder. He was so what are you doing the FHA ones, when you order he does I just order it whenever. And they get the plans and specs, so the appraiser is going to look and they’re gonna appraise the land. And then they’re going to look at the plans and specs for the house being built. And then they’re going to base their comps off of that they can tell what it’s going to be worth office plans and specs. So, so you can do that even before. I mean, even before it’s framed, you don’t have to wait for the house is done to find out which that’s important for builders, because they need to make sure they’re not going to get to the finish line and the things not the reason the buyer came up. So, it’s important for the buyer, because then they’re their host too. I have seen Oh, you know, just because I’ve been a part of so many of them managing a builder account. I have seen where appraisals on new construction have been light but not by much ever. And that was when a very market that was just skyrocketing, right, you know, during the COVID era where prices were going up faster than the values could keep up with them. And so, but you know, once that deal closes, you’re the cop now so you might have paid 5000 was more than an appraised for but, but now that’s what it is. And the next house that sells is going to be free but more so you’re still getting equity. You’re not starting with negative equity. You know, that’s the mindset people get, but you know, it’s all what you’re comfortable with.

Jacob Davis  19:42

That’s cool. I was just thinking about a text I sent Lynda Darnell, who works for Woodbridge real estate woo woop. So, I text her because we’re just like, man, it’s gotten kind of busy. And so, I texted her again I got the text, but I think it was. We received one offer. We sent a new offer. We sent a counteroffer; we signed two listings. And there was price up mouse. But that was my day yesterday. So that’s pretty. That’s pretty good. That’s like, I think it gets I in that we’re getting got busy. Yeah.

Jarod Evenson  20:23

Yeah. So, I’m seeing, you know, my, on this,

Jacob Davis  20:27

Is the

Jarod Evenson  20:30

Well, my February’s shoddy, that’s Welcome to winter. My year starting off way busier than I’ve ever, ever had. And besides the COVID era, where it was just one season, like we were just busy, right. Typically, you know, our markets are seasonal, and I had, so we’re back to a normal market where it is seasonal, but it feels spring ish. You know, as far as real estate goes. You know, I think two purchase contracts on Monday and usually January, you’re lucky to get one, you know, that month to date. I think I got like four or five or six, something like that. So, couple of refinances. It’s, it feels like March, April, you know, so, so that’s good.

Jacob Davis  21:15

That is good. Well, cool. Well, anything else? You’ve got? You want to talk about? Maybe who you what company you work for?

Jarod Evenson  21:27

Oh, yeah. You know what, I worked for Cross Country Mortgage, my friends. So, my team, we went there We tried. We tried Cross Country Mortgage Back in September. I think. We were stoked. We, we wanted to you know, why did we move? We want to do serve our clients better if we wanted to say yes to more deals. And we got we got recruited by the old great throwing Samoan Jack Thompson in Wheatley join the Jack Thompson team. So, which, which works really, really great for, for us because we do so much business and Pullman, we’ve got that Cougs first benefit that we give for sec $22,198 In closing costs, that’s a random number. But that’s

Jacob Davis  22:15

I’m gonna put you on the spot here. Are you a, and what’s the Coug? What’s the NIL? Cougs? Not kids first Cougar Collective Are you, Are you a member of that?

Jarod Evenson  22:30

Personally? No. No, no, we are group is our you know the Jack Thompson team is, is a big part of that. So, you’ll see his name all over that website right there with you, Jacob. With you. So,

Jacob Davis  22:47

Right on Well, that’s good. Yeah, I am a I’m a Palouse Posse member of the Cougar collective. So, I’m pretty proud of that. So anyways, I’m also a member of kids first, which I think is a great organization.

Jarod Evenson  23:04

It’s awesome. I just had a really awesome real estate agent in Spokane that I work with joining Cougs First the Crimson whatever the one is, it’s a, it’s higher up or you know, it’s, it’s not the entry level one, but whatever. And we’re loving it. We’ve been we close the deal together for a queued up here in Spokane and, and whatnot. It’s, it’s a great, it’s a great little networking group. But you know, Jack, my boss was the one that had the bright idea of creating that. So that’s a big part of what we do. Cross Country is, you know, there’s a, we’re, we’re tapping that network, if you will, to help our buyers or help find buyers and get them to our real estate partners that are also a part of it. It’s great.

Jacob Davis  23:49

Cool, that’s awesome. Well, I think we’ve covered quite a bit of ground here.

Jarod Evenson  23:56

Four or five minutes turned into 25. Yeah, yeah. What’s, what does? What does Woodbridge Real Estate have? on anything exciting coming up before we wrap up?

Jacob Davis  24:09

Um, I mean, we’re just busy, like so you know, we’ve got some awesome agents. We got a couple of new agents that came over last year that are crushing it, we’ve got so you know, we’re kind of a small company, but we’re growing so I think we’re at 13 agents now. And, you know, I’ve been kind of working more as you know, as kind of doing some coaching with our agents. And so, I mean, that’s kind of a new thing like, trying to get them on board with doing the activities you know, they do an awesome job on transaction management and just trying to help them facilitate more business? And so, I’ve been kind of helping with that. We’re doing a lot of social media, more marketing. We’re just looking to grow. We’ve got two offices now one in Colfax one in Pullman. So

Jarod Evenson  25:22

Got that Colfax office. Are you guys ever going to put the Arby’s back in there? Or what’s the deal?

Jacob Davis  25:29

They’d have to kick me out of the kitchen because that’s where my office is, is I’m actually in the kitchen area of the old Arby’s.

Jarod Evenson  25:38

Still smell like curly fries?

Jacob Davis  25:42

No, smells like smells like me, which smells great. Anyways, yeah, so our Colfax office. The Ag West is on the other side. So, work on our right on the main drag we got electronic sign so we can advertise our listings on the highway which is pretty awesome. And I control that so I can add listening info I can also talk about you know, football games basketball games.

Jarod Evenson  26:20

Have you warned people to slow down because there’s a state trooper ahead?

Jacob Davis  26:24

I can, I can update the sign in like five minutes so but anyways, yeah, so we’re, we’re late Whitman County, Latah County as we’re the markets that we mostly work currently we have an agent Lewiston you know, we’re looking to grow kind of, and work with agents. Wherever we have an awesome designated broker, awesome. Photographer, we do 3d, you know, the 3d walkthroughs drone photos. Awesome stills.

Jarod Evenson  27:01

Don’t forget your YouTube walkthroughs.

Jacob Davis  27:03

Oh, yeah. And, yeah, those are pretty decent. And I worked with a company out of Pullman for that. And they help you know, so those are fun. And they’re a great way to, to show the property in a different way. So yeah, we’re just trying to provide service and kind of go above and beyond. And I think all the agents are on board with that. They were not looking to kind of half-ass the marketing on our homes we’re selling, we want to provide the best marketing that we can, and also with open houses, which takes time, but I mean, that’s you got to get people in homes, you know. So, I’m always pushing open houses. They do help us generate business, but they help sell the property. And so, I’m, I’m pretty hands on with our company and what we’re doing and what the agents are doing. Because that’s just power roll. So, So yeah, so we’re I guess I don’t I don’t know if I answer your question. But we’re, our focus, to be honest, is to do as good a freaking job as we can. And then the business. I think the business will grow organically because of that. You know, because people will tell I mean, it’s already kind of happened. I’ve seen where people are like you got work with Woodbridge, you know, and so that’s pretty cool.

Jarod Evenson  28:49

Those are the best. When you get that phone call and say, hey, you helped my Uncle Steve, I’m looking to buy a house like, oh,

Jacob Davis  28:58

Yeah, I think when like when someone has a great experience, we’re working with a Woodbridge agent, it just helps the business kind of grow organically. And so that’s been my focus is making sure you know, and luckily, just the agents that I’ve kind of have come in, they already do that. They’re just super, you know, hands on with their clients. Not lackadaisical, and they did a great job.

Jarod Evenson  29:27

If you’re watching this and you work with Jacob, like are his team referrals, that’s our livelihood. That’s, that’s, you know, tell you if when you hear of a friend buying a house, set them up with the same team you work with if you had a great experience that’s, that’s saw the world turns that’s how our worlds turn at least so I had a client yesterday tagged me in a Facebook post. That was cool because we closed on their house yesterday and it was a tough deal and that’s the best compliment in the world. I looked at his poll, you know, I finally bought a house, you know, use this real authority use Jared I Highly recommend, and it’s got like 200 likes and 40 comments that’s the best marketing for me half pay a dime for that I’d use provide good service was awesome.

Jacob Davis  30:09

Yeah, makes I mean that’s always makes you feel good about what you’re doing so well cool I were at 30 minutes yeah, I’m gonna have to do 30-minute podcast but we’ve covered some good stuff. Anything else you want to talk about?

Jarod Evenson  30:31

Yet? No just what’s your YouTube channel where people follow you?

Jacob Davis  30:36

Just you Jacob T Davis. You go to all my all my stuff. The only thing that is not Jacob T Davis for like, social media is Instagram. Which is JacobTDavisyo. Jacob T Davis taken as was taken by like Twitter’s Jacob T Davis, YouTube’s Jacob T. Davis. My emails Jacob T Davis. Everything’s pretty much Jacob T Davis. My LinkedIn. I think Jacob T David, 

Jarod Evenson  31:07

My first Jacob T Davis. radio commercial. I remember was Jacob T as in Tyrannosaurus Davis. Yeah, that was before I even knew you. I was like, who is this clown?

Jacob Davis  31:22

I mean, I think I think humor helps pique interest, so I’ve gone that route. I saw Well, I don’t know if I told you, but I sold radio advertising for two years. So, I became an expert in radio ads.

Jarod Evenson  31:39

All right. Well, thanks for having me, brother.

Jacob Davis  31:42

Yeah, it was Yeah, cool. Well, keep crushing it and we’ll be in touch!

Jarod Evenson  31:50

Alright my friend. Thank you.