How to Turn Your Home Selling Journey into a Success Story with Eric Purcell

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Interview Transcription

ADRIENNE: 
Welcome back. And thanks for listening to the Team Lally Real Estate show home of the guaranteed sold program. We’ll buy it. I’m Adrienne and I’m Attilio. And if you have any questions, just give us a call at 7999596 or check us out online at Teamlally.com.

ATTILIO: 
Our guest today is a retired Navy is retired Navy of 23 years and currently a civilian working for the Navy. He is originally from Houston, Texas and loves golf, fishing, swimming and cooking.

ADRIENNE: 
Here to talk about his recent experience selling a home with Team Lally, please welcome today’s guest, Eric Purcell. Hey,

ERIC: 
Eric. Hey, aloha. Good afternoon.

ATTILIO: 
All right, you coming in for buy for good, good, good quality sound here. So Eric? Yeah, you know, I was curious, the besides this home that we had helped you sell out there in Mililani. Where did you own real estate and other places?

ERIC: 
No, I do have a home in Houston. Gotcha. My dad’s home.

ATTILIO: 
Gotcha.

ADRIENNE: 
So this is his first home selling experience first home selling experience. And it was a very long line, a very long relationship. Yeah. Eric,

ATTILIO: 
do you remember the first time that we I think we did like on some kind of like zoom or something right when he was when you’re in Germany? Yes.

ERIC: 
Yes. You guys contacted me and answered every single question I had for over an hour and a half. And it made things very clear and understandable. So I really appreciate that.

ATTILIO: 
You know, how long what was this?

ADRIENNE: 
I feel like it was in 2020 2120 21.

ATTILIO: 
So here we are. 20.

ERIC: 
January or February 2021. Oh, wow.

ATTILIO: 
And so we only close on this transaction in like last month, last month and 2024. That’s a long time. So, you know, when we started with Eric, he was just a baby in the crib and then when we finished he was a grown man. That’s how long we’ve been working with. Eric So

ADRIENNE:
yeah, so um, so, as we had stated, you know, we, you appreciated us answering all the questions, I think that you had initially heard about our team through the radio. And so

ATTILIO: 
was that how you heard about us?

ERIC: 
Absolutely. Through Sean Hannity a few times I’m like, and then I knew about you guys being in Hawaii being on Shark Tank, and just doing a great job and having a great reputation.

ADRIENNE: 
Gotcha. And we got you connected with Duke to help you to rent out the property, right? Because you had orders over to Germany.

ERIC: 
Yep. Yeah. So went to Germany for four and a half years and rented through that property manager, okay. And they were also really good and attentive and just took care of my needs. When you’re so far away, you really can’t do anything. Yeah, you have to have that medium to get business done. So I really appreciate them as well, I would highly recommend them on top of using you guys for selling and

ATTILIO: 
and, and so tell us about your tell us about your journey through this process. So you got back on island? And then we after the tenants route? Well, well,

ADRIENNE: 
no. So I think we’re headed but initially prompted all of the questions was that the the the tenants, we’re going to be moving out, and we’re considering selling Yes, back in 2021. And you were still going to be remained in Germany for another year or so. So you’re like, is it a good time to sell? And so we were exploring it and like looking at the market? And, you know, considering what would the home sell for what would need to be done to the home? And I think that’s how it all had started. But then there was so many changes in Eric’s life, which is why it’s like another tenant in well, which is why we you know, are you know, it took so long to get the home sold. Yeah. It wasn’t like a three year long listing. It was just, yeah, a very long conversation.

ATTILIO: 
Yes, yes. For the listeners out there. We want to make sure this this, this listing wasn’t on the market for 900 days. No. Bad. Yeah. The

ERIC: 
move, moved back, decided to that I want to sell and then I didn’t. And then I wanted to sell had the for sale sign coming soon sign up and ended up. Yeah, then finally life took its turn and said, Yeah, it’s time. And once the ball got rolling, documentation, finding a buyer, the negotiations back and forth, signing a lot of documents. And just any task that was out there to do was assigned quickly to an individual and taken care of and that was impressive to is like, Adrienne would just put out a list and say this needs to get done. And you you and you finish this up. And I was amazed. Yeah, everything got done quickly. And effectively.

ATTILIO: 
Yeah, I think I mean, Eric, would you say it’s kind of like being in the Navy, or where you work at today? What for whatever you do, or even back in the Navy, you didn’t do it? All right, you always had people to help. I

ERIC: 
had a team, I have a team now, which is helpful. And so delegating and just making a difference and getting stuff done and timely and effectively is just the way to go. So that’s what I think of you guys and your business is that it’s more like a family because I’ve been involved with you guys so long. And yeah, I sold my house. I’m still talking to you guys. And I would highly recommend my friends use you guys because of that. Awesome.

ATTILIO: 
And well yeah, I

ADRIENNE: 
was gonna say we appreciate that. That endorsement to your your friends and family and co workers and they know that you’ve been a big, you know, advocate and fan for Team Lally, as well as your Hawaii Pacific property management. And it feels weird now that we’re not calling you every Monday.

ATTILIO: 
I know. So we said, hey, we got to have you on the show for one last hurrah. This year. It’s like you like, like, like, we’re on? We’re on the show Friends. And then this was your last episode. So it’s like, Episode, friends is

ERIC: 
the page of a new book. And my goal is being debt free. And 53. That has been accomplished. Good.

ATTILIO: 
Now that’s the two things Yeah, two compliments I want to give you Eric is that you were very patient through this whole process. You always were in good spirits and super handy. I mean, there was so much that like odds and ends Yeah, countertops and removing painting removing An AC door

ADRIENNE: 
that that

ATTILIO: 
Oh, yeah. French door you did you install the French door? Yeah.

ERIC: 
Installed French doors? Yeah.

ATTILIO: 
Yeah, tell the listeners to is like we don’t have that expectation of every seller well we just say, here’s like 29 things we got to get done to for property prep, you can do some we can do some we can have somebody else help out. So it can be a combination. And what really worked out for Eric was that he was super handy with a lot of this stuff.

ADRIENNE: 
And then Eric was also able to take advantage of the 10 K for upgrades. Yeah. So Eric, can you share with our listeners a little bit about how that was helpful? And you know, the kind of renovations you’re able to do with that extra financial support? Because you are labor?

ATTILIO: 
Yes.

ERIC: 
The simplicity of it, like just saying I need this countertop, or I need this particular item for installation. You guys basically purchased it, I went and picked it up and installed it. Yeah. And that really helped a lot and getting into a new place to with the move and not many people have liquid income of five to $10,000 laying around so dreamy, helpful and ended up bringing the value of the house as well. Yeah,

ATTILIO: 
and we you know, that money we got that laying around. We got it out of Adrian’s ashtray of her car. No, no way to get it out of the ashtray. But I I’m you know, I’m I’m really excited to have you come on here and talk about it. Because you’re talking about it from like real life like we actually do this. Because I just wonder we say like, Hey, we’ll front you up to 10k or more depending on the situation to get your home ready for sale? Eric answer this question, because we talk about it, but it’s much more impactful coming from an actual client. Do we make you make payments on that? No. Or do we get did we get reimbursed at closing so we we got our money when you got your money? Did we charge you interest?

ERIC: 
No, no interest. It was there for things I needed. Things weren’t nitpick. Like if I wanted to get a particular items, you guys didn’t challenge me on it and ended up was able to do the cabinets countertops? Were the two big major things the French door? Yeah. I mean, that probably added 20 $30,000 Just from spending four or 5000.

ATTILIO:
I think that’s a key thing, what you just said, because we talked about it on the show, you know, we always are going to advise our clients. It’s just a basic rule of thumb, if you’re going to spend $1 with the remodeling, we want to get back what Adrienne at least $1 $50.50 minimum. Yeah, so I mean, get an ROI get a return on and for you. We did a return, we did the R LROM Return on money but you did the R O T was R O T Adrian didn’t return time time you put the time into it the sweat equity, equity and stuff like that. So you were very helpful in preparing your home for market and getting the getting the you know, the return that you wanted. Talk about it and then we had some you know, I think it’s you know, if I had to say what was the the the humorous part of it was? It shall give you a hint, Eric, it was the cigarette butts and showers. Oh my I’m gonna share that part. I thought that was hilarious. That’s

ADRIENNE: 
never happened, by the way

ERIC: 
with that. I don’t wish that on anybody. But if there are homeless people anywhere near these open houses, they know they’re vacant, you know, you have to be careful. Put your cameras up, put up signs to keep them from going inside and maybe damage or something like that. I mean, the cigarette butt on the towel rack. I just so happened to find it because it was I was cleaning the bathroom. Yeah.

ATTILIO: 
And by the way, Eric is not a smoker. Neither is his wife.

ERIC: 
I’m not a smoker.

ATTILIO: 
You’re like a detective. It was a CES scene of a CSI CSI Honolulu, CSI Mililani.

ADRIENNE: 
So this homeless person was breaking in and showering and smoking in the house smoking and showering, you know, maybe then what did what did team Lally do? What did we do to help to prevent this future behavior?

ERIC: 
We put up cameras, and we put up signs that you will be prosecuted and that seemed to be the right deterrent because they never went in again.

ATTILIO: 
I tell you. So these are nest cams, by the way that scans you just as long as you got Oh, and your neighbor helped out with the Wi Fi. Yes.

ADRIENNE: 
Also neighbor’s Wi Fi thank you to the neighbor.

ATTILIO: 
Thank you, neighbor. But we use the neighbors neighbor as well. Yeah.

ERIC: 
was helpful in general. Like I was in Texas, and they were calling me almost every morning and saying, Hey, I think I hear noises in your house and they go check on it. And that’s when they started doing the cameras because of that problem. Yeah,

ATTILIO: 
it was interesting too, because we we put up one camera facing the door. And then you then we see the camera go off because they had come in through the kitchen. And then we realized, okay, they’re coming in through the kitchen. So we put another camera facing the kitchen and that’s the one plus the science and it stopped, then it stopped because it was like, it was literally that situation smile. You’re on camera. So I think at that point, they’re like, Okay,

ADRIENNE:
and I find another vacant home to shower in. Yeah. So

ATTILIO: 
home invasion to shower, use the toilet and smoke my cigarettes.

ERIC:
And probably eat, but they didn’t leave any beer in the fridge. So that wasn’t very happy about that one. They

ATTILIO: 
should have left your six pack abs and say thank you leave. That’s like Airbnb for the for Jerry. I for Jerry and Sarah who stay at the park, there was air being being your house without even knowing you’re on Airbnb. So that was one of those interesting circumstances. But I think I think for us, we were glad that we were able to

ADRIENNE: 
be we were Yeah, we were solution oriented. Yeah. And, you know, quickly got those cameras up in the right places. And then it stopped. Yeah.

ATTILIO: 
And I think to that. Eric, typically what part of the week do we are we calling you every week? Begin Monday? Yep. Every Monday. And then I think that’s one of the things that if you realtors are out there listening that? I mean for you, Eric, did you Was that helpful? For Adrian, I had to call you every Monday and give you you know, hey, what’s happened? And what’s what’s the game plan? Or

ADRIENNE: 
even a check in? Yeah, even if there was nothing really to

ERIC: 
even if there was nothing, it was extremely helpful because I felt part of your team. Because it is a group effort to sell a house. I mean, it’s not one person making it happen. I mean, with the advertising, the web, posting Facebook, negotiating with documentation like Damien and the cameras and the flyovers with the drone and just presentation the general was absolutely making a difference in home sales, I would say,

ATTILIO: 
I think you know, so Eric, the number so NAR National Association of REALTORS is our national membership is actually one of the largest professional memberships in the US. I think about a million million of us and stuff like that. And so they serve a consumers of real estate services. And the number one complaint was like, once I listed my home, I could not get ahold of my realtor was like, communication, communication was the number one complaint. So I think for you is like, I remember, I mean, we checked in with you in the beginning before we even had it listed. But sometimes if there was there was nothing new to report, we would literally call up Eric and Eric would say hello. And we would say hello. And we say how are you? I’m doing fine. And then how was your day? Oh, it’s pretty good. I I had l&l plate lunch today. And the weather’s really nice. I’m like, Oh, that’s great. What else you gonna do? No, I mean, the point being is that we would check in whether we had something to report or not. Because Eric would say, Oh, what about this?

ADRIENNE: 
He’d have a question or something that he needed help on. Regardless, if it had anything to do with the home sale? We are, you know, we are your advocates. And you know, just an additional resource to try and, you know, help in all different areas. Yeah. You know, of your life.

ATTILIO: 
Eric, what about the email recaps? Because you know, us we’re really good about our email recaps, are those helpful?

ERIC: 
Very helpful, because then something you may forget that you heard on the phone, you go back and reread it, and it validates the things you actually talked about. Yeah. So that was super helpful, actually want to implement that in my work? Oh, good. I talked to people I follow up with an email saying that’s what we discussed. Yes, what your sign. And I think it really helps people because then you have a reference to go back to and what were they talking about? So I can go back to my email. And I go to that, and see everything that’s there.

ATTILIO: 
Yeah. And and, and it manages expectations, and then creates clarity. And then like he said, If there’s an add on after that, because we always think of those super critical things right after we hang up. Like oh, wait, one more thing. I think you can always hit reply on the email. The other thing I wanted to So Eric, I want to compliment you, you have an r&d department Adrienne, what’s Eric’s r&d department with the with the with the recap emails? So rip off and duplicate rip off and duplicate so I’m glad that that’s helpful for you in your workplace and then you know what, I guarantee you somebody’s listening to this and like maybe I should do that too. In my workplace. The Adrienne yet another question for Eric and we probably got one or two questions left for him and well,

ADRIENNE: 
I mean, I guess it’s just more of a like a statement. And that you know, we You know that this the home selling process is done and we enjoyed the the communication and the relationship. But you know, the relationship is not over even though the home has sold. And I hope that you know that we are still here as a resource for any of your, you know, whether it’s real estate or not like we have a lot of different connections throughout the community. Yeah. And yeah, we’re here for you, regardless of if you’re selling or buying with us, you know, the current time.

ATTILIO: 
Yeah. And then we’re gonna have March, we’re having an event for our clients. Right, Eric and Donna, you guys are gonna come out to our events and all of our client appreciation events. And I think we’re gonna be Eric and Donna, because they were nice. And and I think we’ve got we have a lunch scheduled with him as well. Yeah, we’re going to lunch. Yes. That’s awesome. Great. Yeah. But perfect. Yeah. You know, Is mom and dad still with us? For you, Eric, your mom and dad, a dad. That is I would face if I was talking to you that I would tell you that right now. You raised your son, right? Because he was hardworking. He was patient handy. And

ADRIENNE: 
he was in good spirits.

ATTILIO: 
And we had some challenging things. And Eric was always up and positive. And then for your co workers that are listening right now your subordinates, you’re lucky to have Eric as your as your big winner, your boss. Yes. So especially now that he’s recapping the emails. Was that Eric, thank

ERIC: 
you so much for that. I’m actually going into my next meeting. And I appreciate talking to you guys so much. Yes, Eric. And looking forward to hanging out for lunch one day. Okay.

ATTILIO: 
We will do that. Thanks, Eric. Thank you, Eric. Thanks, guys. All righty. Bye. Bye. So that was Eric Purcell. We helped him sell his house in Mililani. Yes. And we started initial conversation with him was almost three years ago, put a renter in there, you know,

ADRIENNE: 
he just had a lot of different life changes. And things were, you know, you’re thinking that he’s gonna sell and then they just stayed put. And then it was just kind of like a lot of back and forth. So I think that that communication and staying connected, and just being of service trying to, you know, provide additional any kind of resources he needs, that like when the time was right. And he was ready, ready to go? Like we really we hit the ground running?

ATTILIO: 
Yeah, I think it was important to note there in that story, or him sharing his firsthand experiences that we did stick a renter in there, because a lot of times, you know, I think sellers, you’re maybe cautious or about calling us realtors, because you think we’re gonna ram the sale down your throat and say, that’s what you got to do. But I think that for us, for every seller, we want you to build wealth. And building wealth is holding on to real estate. So we’re actually will always say, Hey, have you thought about renting it? And then a lot of people, what I find is they have a lot of misconceptions about renting or and even after all of those are address they still want to sell because selling versus renting it out is better suited for their family’s goals and priorities. That’s true, Adrienne, is that how we treat our clients?

ADRIENNE: 
Yes, yeah. And you know, like, we have had some clients that I’ll just bring up this quick example. I remember, Pedro and Jessica Ruiz. They’re a dual military couple. Yeah. And they were getting, I think their PC, I don’t think they’re etsc. And they’re just PCSC onto their last duty station on people with the acronym ETS versus PCs. Oh, ETS means that that’s like that’s it. They’re done. Like getting out there. Twilight duty station, they’re gonna return on PCs is just moving to the next duty station. So they wanted to sell their home in Kapolei. Yeah. And they had a dual military income still, they still had a couple more years left in the military. And I

ATTILIO: 
gotta correct myself. ETS doesn’t mean necessarily they’re retiring is just they’re getting out of the military. Twilight duty station means you are retiring. And it because then you’re you’re going into a new chapter of your life. So

ADRIENNE: 
anyways, they still had the income. And I told them that it was not time to sell their home yet that they could put a tenant in there and that when they retired, I remember that. Yeah. When they retired, that would be when they would be ready to sell the home. And then make sure that they have a plan for that money because they had no plan for the money. I was like, Okay, well, what are you going to do with this money? Yeah. When do you sell this? If you sell this home now? They didn’t have a plan. So I said, No, you’re gonna You guys need to hold on to this home. And I think it was like three years later that they did end up selling you. Yeah, I mean, extra $200,000. No way. They were very happy.

ATTILIO: 
No way. I say No way. You say yes, way. No way. Yes, way. So that’s the kind of advice you can expect when you come in and meet with us. And by the way, we gave it out earlier. Let’s do it again. What’s your phone number Adrienne if they want to call you directly? 2272703

And maybe you maybe you want somebody more funny than Adrienne, you can call me three 885466 You want somebody more smart than Attilio? Call Adrienne, more funny than Adrienne, call me. That’s it. All right.

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