We are live you guys. This is another week of the Realty Success Hub and I am super excited to join you today. I'm Angela Brown and I'm from the cleaning side of the move-in move-out cleans of the cleaning industry that realtors are so fond of when either there's a seller or a buyer and a home transaction has to take place. So I'm super excited that I'm going to be part of this because I've spent my entire career trying to figure out how do we please the realtors and the homeowners and the home buyers and the banks and the other realtor and all those things. And so I just am super excited that I'm going to be part of this and today we're going to be talking about some of the fears that homeowners have when they go to sell their home. And with me today I have Brooke Bryant who's a realtor and I also have Erin Brown who's a realtor as well. Brooke is in Charlotte, North Carolina and Erin is in San Antonio, Texas. So Brooke I'll let you get started introduce us if you will share a little bit about who you are and how you got in the realty space and then we'll bounce over to Erin. So hey everybody so great to be back. Brooke Bryant I'm with Bryant Realty in Charlotte, North Carolina started in the real estate industry about 11 years ago as a second career. My husband's been in real estate land development and wanted to add another pillar to his business so we do home sales now and it's fun and exciting and a lot of clients do have beers and it's our job to try and help everyone through those. Brooke Bryant Well thank you for that and Erin how about you? Erin Brown Yes based out of San Antonio, Texas full-time realtor and absolutely love it but in the business going on 14 years now. So it's exciting times and an exciting market. Brooke Bryant Yeah well in any market I hate to say this but there are fears like oh no what am I what am I gonna do about this and then we have to say what is the this. So today I've got a couple of things that I want to ask you guys and either of you can answer or both of you can answer I will let whoever feels you know inclined to jump in and share with us the information but we talked a little bit last week about some of the fears that people have and we were able to get some of those resolved over the week we had a lot of questions and comments come in about some of the other things that we're talking about but the the big concern about what we have is when you're selling your home what does that look like and I'll make us small on the screen here so that we can see we can see here but there are there are fears that range from not being able to have your home ready in time to not being able to get what you're hoping for your home and so our first concern of picking up kind of where we left off last week is what happens if you price the house wrong or fear that you will price the house wrong how how do we resolve that either as a realtor or if you're you're you're selling the house by yourself so I'll jump in on that your realtor is going to help you price the home based on recent sales in your area with comparable homes and use a competitive a comparative market analysis to do that so they'll see homes with same amount of bedrooms same square footage one story two story as close as they can find to your home within the closest proximity in the closest sale date to help put a value on your home and then also to judge the market if there are homes in your neighborhood that are getting multiple offers within a day two days a week then that's going to help your realtor help you decide how to price your home and then the fear about pricing if your buyer isn't paying cash and they're getting a loan there's going to be an appraisal so that determines what the bank is going to loan the buyer for your home so that that's where there the sticking point is what the appraisal comes back to be and this crazy market we've seen buyers have been paying above ask price or above appraisal price and just paying that difference with cash what if you don't have the cash then you can't do that then you miss out that's been a big I work with a lot of first-time home buyers and you'll hear about that frustration charlotte north carolina it still continues to deal with that our inventory levels are getting better but I'm working with a buyer and they fall in love with the house we put an offer in it's got multiple offers if they can't come above and pay cash for that difference they're going to lose out on that house and hopefully the next one that comes along they'll be able to be competitive I've got a buddy of mine the bought a house during the the boost of the I don't know what you call it the craze or whatever of like last year and they put in $50,000 over asking price on their house and they were still turned down because somebody outbid them on that yeah yeah so there's what realtors refer to is the highest and best offer and that doesn't necessarily mean who's paying the most but whose offer has the least contingency so if if I'm offering you 100,000 for your house and Aaron's offering you 110 but I'm paying cash and he has to get a loan mine's for less money but I'm paying cash you don't have to worry about financing falling through so the seller could consider that to be a better offer and when you say contingencies what what are you talking about there is that like hey I will give you less money upfront but then I don't require you to replace the foundation of the home and fix the broken driveway and all that stuff if you agree to forgo um any repairs if you forgo an appraisal so regardless of what the home appraise for you're going to pay the agreed upon price um so you're bringing cash to the sale those are some of the contingencies are there any contingencies at all and I ask this just a personal greed but is there are there any contingencies where they say oh don't worry about bringing in a professional cleaner and the house can just be as is and we won't clean it at all we'll just clean it ourselves does that ever happen more often than not we see a request for a professional claim so they still want the house clean no matter what the contingencies are yeah because that's a pretty I mean that's not thousands of dollars that's that's um an affordable and it's not really contingency I mean you're not going to lose a deal over um a professional clean but it's it's it's it's an easy contingency or an easy negotiation point to make that yeah yeah you've been great you paid us above ask price you didn't have to get along of course we'll have the house professionally clean for you so it's a it's an affordable way to um to instill some goodwill got it if if that does become a sticking point oftentimes realtors will jump in and help out with that yeah and when you say realtors jump in what what does that look like comes out of our pocket okay so then back to the greed question which is the house cleaning end of things um if I'm a house cleaner and let's say a realtor has jumped in and they're going to pay that out of their pocket what is the communication to the house cleaning company that hey the realtor has jumped in we're paying for this out of our own pocket versus the buyer is paying for it or the seller is paying for it because that's one of the biggest confusions that we have is who's actually paying my my fee here because if a cleaning company comes in and they give you a quote of let's say $1100 for the cleaning that's the move in move out clean make sure everything is spick and span and then they get in and they find that there's I don't know some kind of a pest infestation or they find that there's something else that is going to take extra time or it's going to require an extra service and they have to charge more money who do they go back to for the money so how has that communicated from the realtor's perspective and in a perfect world what what do you wish would happen as as realtors we typically negotiate with companies on bulk discounts and fixed prices so whether it's a moving company or a cleaning company whoever that ends up being we try to get a fixed price per square footage on the clean for bulk basically in other words every transaction I do I'm going to hire your company to do a professional cleaning I need a fixed price for x amount of spare footage and then as those homes move in square footage I know more and less what I'm paying for and when I ask for a professional clean it's going to include your list of what you're willing to do with those upgrades right if we need a deep cleaning on the fridge or the oven or something it's going to be an extra 75 or 175 bucks whatever that is at least I know going into it as a realtor kind of what that expectation isn't more or less I know what those cleans are going to cost so I can factor that into you know what I'm offering a client on any given deal and when you're talking to a customer or a client do you factor that price into them say hey this is going to cost you $1,100 and I just throw that number out that's not a magic number or anything but do you factor that in and give them kind of a ballpark range as to what they're expecting when the house goes on the market you know I think realtors might might do it differently what I do is I have a list of third party providers that offer things like cleaning services pressure washing those kinds of things here's their average pricing and if you would like any of these services you're welcome to call them get them set up and then if it comes into a transaction where it's like a make or break on a home where somebody's willing to walk away from a deal a great example of that is home warranties I usually offer my clients home warranties if they work with me those usually run about five to six hundred dollars here in San Antonio and so I know going into every transaction that I have six hundred dollars set aside for a home warranty to bless my client with and so I've already got those costs set aside and then I offer those third party cleaning services for the home this is what these companies charge and you're welcome to call them or use whoever you'd like and that usually seems to work pretty well if I get in a situation where like there's a home that's really dirty or it was left in terrible condition I will often offer that as a as a nice gift you know in the process of hey I'll go ahead and cover that cost for you the only thing is here in Texas and it might be different other places if we do that with a client any cost that we give a client for a service has to be disclosed and we disclose that to the title company and let them know hey we're paying X amount on this transaction for X said service and is that it's the same in North Carolina we have a professional services disclosure that we provide our clients these are these are disclosures that I'm going to help you obtain or services I'm going to help you obtain but they sign off on it and then if as a realtor I pay for a service such as that for my client they'll put it on the closing disclosure as a as a realtor credit so how from a cleaning perspective how does a cleaning company get on your list of preferred vendors or preferred service providers at least for the way I run an operate business it's I basically test you and see if you offer a great service and if we've had any complaints once you've worked with three clients you get added to my lender my vendor list and then it's based on client feedback on your service and if I use you and you work well then I'll also offer your services to the brokerage I'm with and once you get put on the brokerage list then you've got multiple agents using that same service for the same more or less same pricing and again like for cleaning that's based on square footage okay so another question from the state of greed and cleaning what would a house cleaning company have to do to be qualified to be on your vendor list you say if they work out and what is what exactly does that mean if I show up on time and I do a good job is that good enough or is there a certain criteria or a checklist that you use that qualifies me or separates let's say the cream from the crop in my experience what it really ends up being is the quality of work that you do in the communication you have okay not only do I get feedback myself but my clients are going to give me feedback and if they go to move in and they're like hey this room was never clean this wasn't touched etc great example of that I had a transaction where we had a professional cleaning company come in and clean the home and up on move in the client came in and said hey we don't feel like they did a good job there's dead flies in the windowsills there's dust all over all of the fans on all of the lights we can see cobwebs hanging from the ceiling and I was like there's no way so I drove out to the home and sure enough across the board all of those things were there and so they did they did clean they just didn't do a very thorough job and so we ended up having them come back out we had to pay another service fee and they did those things but it was the last time we used that company now are there do you do any pre checks because I know a lot of house cleaning companies have a satisfaction guarantee where if you have to call them to come back and re-clean there's not a service fee it is it is part of what they promised you the first time and they should stand good for that do do you look at that it's been pretty hard to find professional cleaners and so it's pretty hit and miss and it's hard to find a company that's really on it we usually try to look for google reviews and see if they have any clients that we could call past clients it has been my experience here local that oftentimes when I call it's usually an aunt uncle brother of the cleaning company and I'm not getting true feedback either way on that and so it's it's kind of testing that company out and seeing how they do the first two or three times before they'll be added to a vendor list gotcha that is really enlightening thank you for that and I'll throw this in most brokerage offices have team meetings once a week and if you establish a relationship with a realtor I've seen it that a lot of these vendors will sponsor those team meetings they'll bring coffee donuts snacks lunch whatever for that meeting give a presentation about the services that they offer and that's a great way for a professional cleaning company or other types of vendors to get in with those realtors make those relationships get their foot in the door and if you come with that opportunity then you're going to do a really good job to try and keep the business of all those realtors and that office and getting all of their business and I love that answer yeah that would help you get on a on a preferred vendor list with not just me but um XYZ realty recommends you know and you and you can even get on their website as a superb service how how is a cleaning company do I get an invite to that weekly meeting you I'm sorry go ahead no go ahead Aaron I was just gonna say you can either go through the realtor and they would go through the broker or go direct to the broker I will tell you that those presentations are usually about five minutes long with two to three minutes of questions afterwards they're usually pitched right before the team meeting and everything's runs on a pretty tight schedule for those meetings because you've got you know 50 100 people sitting in a room and so it's one of those things where that you come in you pitch it very very quickly ask a couple of questions and then you know so you're not you're not talking about a 30 minute presentation or anything just the services offer and have good have good referrals to provide so because it is a quick presentation so you have good materials to leave behind for them to to to prove your work to show the services that you offer but it's just you know getting that foot in the door and they're they're companies that I used to this day that I met through those meetings years ago and we've done lots of business together so quick sidebar we've done a lot of meetings like that my company personally and a lot of homeowners association meetings where it's a home owners meeting with a whole bunch of people who have homes that could also hire you and one of the things that I did it was kind of rogue it was like a side thing that it doesn't have anything to do with fears I'm just taking a quick sidebar but what I would do is I would go to the area there in every city there's like a little place where you buy souvenirs and I buy a charlotte mug because that's the city that I live in and I would fill full chocolates and I would wrap it in cellophane and then I would stand at the door and I had a little basket and I would ask for people to give me their business card so that I could give them the door prize like we're going to have a drawing for a door prize and I always I assigned myself at every HOA meeting or the realtor meetings or wherever we did like the BNI meetings or any any meetings that I went to chamber of commerce or what have you that I was hey I've got the door prize for today people like oh we have a door prize committee I didn't know about that and then I would stand there at the door and I would collect the business cards and as people would give me a business card I would give them one of mine as well and say hey let me just give you one of mine because you never know then I would stand up and of course they say okay it's time for the door prize they would stand up even if I wasn't part of the presentation and I would stand up and I would say because they would announce me like hey she's going to give a door prize tell us who you are and what this prize is I would get up and say hey I'm Angela this is my cleaning company I'm the preferred cleaner for this particular area and the door prize winner is and then I would pull out a name and I would give them the coffee mug well everybody that went home had my business card because we swapped it in that exchange and then also they would see me at that meeting so obviously she said she was the preferred cleaner of this company right and so that was kind of like my little in and it cost me whatever the expense of the little mug which was usually you can buy them at the dollar store or something I mean they're not very expensive and then the chocolates that go inside you're talking under five bucks for that presentation in front of the group and if you're the person at the front of the group you carry authority and so that was a little tiny sidebar of how we would get ourselves then in front of the I don't know whoever it was that had to me love them super savvy very savvy well thank you all right speaking of which it is possible and this goes back to another one of the fairs that we have is sometimes there are big projects like a cleaning company will go in for for several cleanings and the I don't know the homeowner for whatever reason does not pay and so what happens is we have an incident where there's a lien against the property and the lien against the property is held until the cell of the home what happens if you are afraid that you have liens against your property that have not been satisfied and you have to resolve those before the cell of your home goes through well in the due diligence process once a home goes under contract it will be just covered if there are liens against the property even if you weren't aware of them there could be liens against the property before you became the owner of it that weren't ever cleared up whenever satisfied so those are going to be discovered by the closing attorney in North Carolina we all our closings go through attorneys and the lien can be satisfied with the proceeds at closing you can negotiate with the lien holder to pay off the lien pay a portion of the lien to satisfy it North Carolina I think our statute of limitations for a lien is 10 years but then the lien holder can request to extend that but knowledge is power so you need to know if there are liens is it possible like let's say that I had liens on my house and I was going to try to sell my house is it possible that in the buying of the home that the new buyer would help pay for some of that it is possible depending on your market depending on your location you can ask the buyer to pay for some or all of your lien yeah and you know in markets where there's very low inventory in a very competitive buying situation then that is something that you can negotiate almost everything in real estate is negotiable it's all about the realtor getting with third parties and trying to figure out the best solution for the parties involved yeah so don't not sell your home because you have fears because some of them can still be resolved even if you don't have experience or a background about how they might be resolved right right yeah and again knowledge is power you need to know and to work to resolve that issue at some point if you can't right now then work to resolve it at some point in the future and you could talk with the lien holder and see if you can negotiate it down you know they might rather have a portion of what you owe them in lieu of getting nothing for the foreseeable future so yeah just just find out what you owe and and work towards solutions to resolve it I love that one of the the fears that we have is home inspection revealing problems I know for example I'm not in the market to sell my home right now but that is one of the fears that I have right now and I know that because some of the the tile floors in our house they haven't cracked but like the the um I don't know what you call it but like the the grout has cracked and it has become crumbly and so when you walk on that part of the floor like it kind of like squeaks like it didn't before and I think maybe like the foundation has settled a little bit and I'm thinking that like on a what do you call it an inspection or something they're going to find out that like my house is like three inches lower or something that other you know like and then I'm going to have to pay a whole bunch of money how do you overcome the fear of that I'm happy to speak to that for a minute we basically every home we recommended our clients give an inspection report and the job of the inspector is to try to find any deficiencies with the home and so there's usually a laundry list of minor deficiencies it really when it comes to real estate what makes or breaks a real estate transaction is what we call the major five and those major five are the things that would really affect the house long term and you know those things would be the foundation in the roof the mechanicals of the house plumbing and electrical and so anything outside of that realm is usually pretty easily fixed in terms of some sort of negotiation whether it's something in lieu of or etc so things like you know grout unless it is a foundation issue and that's what it comes up to be those issues would be easily addressed and resolved typically if it's a major five that's usually where insurance gets involved we're dealing with several of those right now where you know hell damage to a roof yeah it's a big deal roof needs to be replaced so insurance is stepping in to replace those things and so they're usually pretty easily workable situations and solutions when it comes to most minor things and they'll be in most reports there's about 30 pages of those doors not closing quite tightly you know light switches that don't work etc etc and again knowledge is power so you can have a pre-inspection done before you list your home so that you know what efficiencies are there what defects are there so you know what you're facing before you put the home on the market and get into a situation where you're negotiating repairs with a buyer you can know that going in that will help you determine what you are prepared to fix what you're able to fix what insurance will fix before it goes under contract and then those things can make the deal fall apart you know if it's something that you can take of take care of before you put the home on the market that might be a little more peace of mind for for the seller and take away that fear that before before I put my home in the market I knew exactly what I was dealing with I know that when we bought the house that we're in right now we actually owned another home and we hired the I guess it was on the closing or something and the inspector came through and one of the things that he found that I did not see coming was in the shower where you go to turn the shower knob on and off the whole hardware had become loose from the wall and it was kind of like teetering in the wall he said that's not going to hold up to inspection and we said well I mean like the shower is already built around it how do you and he said you're going to have to go in through the back of the wall and you're going to have to tighten all of that hardware because somebody could pull it off and then it becomes you know a plumbing issue and it's not going to pass inspection you have to pay for it and because we were building the new home I immediately called the inspector and I said will you go take a look at the new home and make sure that as they're building the new home that that issue is resolved in the new home so that when I go to sell that home I don't have to pay for all of this expense again can we catch it right now in the early phases and he went over to that home and he said oh my goodness this is not set up correctly either and so we were able to right before we had purchased the home and before we closed I don't know if we closed on it or they were still building it or whatever I think we hadn't finalized all the paperwork on it but what had happened then as we were able to include that in our requests of you know maintenance and repairs and all that stuff within our window of purchasing the home they came in and they fixed all that bolted everything down and locked it down with two by fours or however they do it so that it wouldn't ever come out of the wall because I was like I don't want to have to pay for this expense twice on two and the guy came out he's like yeah this is this is bad and so they were able to fix that so now if I sell my home that's one thing I don't have to worry about so that fair was was fixed before I I even got there yeah smart so some of the repairs can be costly and this is one of the the fears that I think many people have when they're talking about like cracked foundations or you're talking about water damage or something like that are there any structural damages or structural issues that people should know about and prevent in advance or is there a way to overcome this like you said most things are negotiable can you can you negotiate something away of a costly repair that's that's part of a I don't know something that could stop a sale yeah so if if you're under contract on a home and the inspection process you learn that there is a defect in the home that is costly and the seller doesn't have the money to make the repair then you can negotiate that in the sale price so we were under contract for 500,000 this repair is going to cost 75,000 so we're going to adjust the price by all of it we'll meet in the middle you'll negotiate that out so yeah that cannot that can be adjusted in the sales price if there's if there's room for that also to kind of come up with that price what we usually do is we'll get two or three contractors out to give us a quote so let's say it's a foundation we'll get two or three foundation companies out as quickly as possible give us a quote take that average and now both parties know what a fair market value for that repair would be so that neither party feels like they're being taken advantage of two or three companies have said it's more or less gonna cost x and then we have something to negotiate with and we can come to an agreement where everybody feels good about it and very often the buyer will prefer that because then the repairs are done kind of under their watch and they can monitor it and it's not just hey the seller did some quick fix and then we're going to find out a few years down the road that the repair wasn't done in the manner that I would have had it done had I owned the home at that time there's only sorry the one the one area where we see a lot of discrepancy here is on fix and flips and so they're looking for a particular profit margin on a fix and flip and oftentimes they've got the cheapest contractors and materials on a fix and flip and so that's a little different scenario but in most other scenarios that would be pretty typical what we just talked about in the house that we live in right now all of a sudden one day in the bedroom I'm kind of telling on myself here but the ceiling started to fall apart and then the plaster started falling and I'm like this is a new house what's happening here and it seemed to be a leak in the roof but I couldn't I couldn't find the leak because there's no water up there so I'm like either it's coming in from the roof or something so I had a roofing company come out and they're like oh yeah this is going to cost you like thousands of dollars and it was an astronomical fee like you're going to have to rip off the whole roof and replace it and it wasn't done right and all this other stuff I was like well I mean like I'm not seeing wear and tear on any other parts of the roof it's just like this one spot so then I had a second roofing company come out and give me a quote and they weren't as much as the first but the price was so different that I was like I don't want to go with either one of them because is it all this money or is it like this much money what's the difference and why is the price so different so I've got a brother that's in the roofing business and uh he came to visit and I said hey I hate to do this to you but while you're here you know is there any chance that that I could run this by you and you tell me what and he said oh I'm going to climb up on your roof I'm going to take a look and he came back down off my roof and he said you have one little tiny thing where instead of the shingle going over the top it's like this and the the water's dripping right down in here and it's caused this little water damage and it's literally two shingles that need to be replaced and they need to hammer down that little thing he said I don't have any of my tools with me or I would do it right now but he said you ask somebody to come replace two shingles they shouldn't charge you more than $250 it can be done in less than a half hour and I said are you serious he said I'm 100 serious so I called I called a different company and I said hey listen it's two shingles I've got the spare shingles in my garage like from one we bought the house so that it matches I said it's one little thing that's come up and he said how do you know and I said I had two people come out and look at it there were different cleaning or different roofing companies and then my brother who's been in the roofing business for years climbed up on my roof and took a look and the guy gets up on the roof he goes that's exactly what it is it's that one little thing and he repaired it with the shingles that I had and he said I'm only going to charge my service fee he said it took less than five minutes to do boom boom boom we're done and I was like oh my goodness I could have paid like all the money and I replaced like my whole roof and they could have done a full tear off and got my insurance company involved and all that stuff and it was literally just getting the right person on the roof to give me an honest answer you know that you're fortunate that you did that I think a lot of people get get taken advantage of I had a client who had somebody after a recent hailstorm a company went through their neighborhood knocking on doors said we'll give you a free roof inspection they did they put a roof on for her said her insurance would pay for it her insurance did not they charged her put a lien on her house it was a whole it was it was awful so yeah they're sadly their company's out there that will take advantage of you so like Erin said get multiple estimates have multiple contractors come out and look at your job and and yeah if it's crazy high crazy low yeah that's a little that's a little scary but try and give yourself as much information as you can but when we're talking about home inspections and having them take a look at your home I've got a question about termites is that is that a big thing or can that kind of like be passed off to the next homeowner or is that going to stop a sale well and if you have a if you have a termite bond you can transfer that from the seller to the buyer termites are a big issue here in North Carolina I'm not sure if they are in in San Antonio they're a big issue here as well yeah so yeah it's a it's a big concern right now I have a transaction going on and it's a VA loan a Veterans Administration loan and they require termite inspection a lot of lenders don't require it's like $85 hunt to $100 here it's so worth it to do and it's it their wood destroying insects they can absolutely demolish you know if you're on a crawl space underneath your home if you don't have a good vapor barrier down there you can do so much damage so yeah I have have a termite inspection done and and keep termite protection on your home because you just never as your home ages moisture gets under your home or around your home you just want to prevent that it's a very preventable issue and so it's it's also I mean it is a big deal but some people feel like it's the end of the world companies can come out and remediate it and treat them and depending on the amount of damage it can usually get repaired and fixed and oftentimes it's it's only affecting one area or they're only into the porch or something under one window seal so sometimes it's not as scary as it sounds you know when you think like oh termites have infested my house you know people get really scared and it's it's usually fairly treatable and what about on the inspection if your home shows up with something like radon or lead paint or something like that because I know a lot of homeowners are afraid that they're not going to be able to I'm going to have to redo my whole ceiling if it's a popcorn ceiling and it has asbestos in it or something like that what are how how is that dealt with as a realtor knowing that there may be issues like that that come up well in North Carolina any home built before 1978 has the potential for lead paint and you have to disclose whether you know of any lead paint in the home or not for the most part it's all been painted over would replace that sort of thing but you do have to disclose it and you can test for the paint radon North Carolina there is a good bit of radon in North Carolina and the inspector can do it's not part of the regular home inspection but but it is an add-on for a couple hundred dollars they'll put radon machine in the home for a couple days they'll test the readings at different times and and like Aaron said with the termites it's something that can be it can be remediated pretty easily so nothing to be scared of but again just that's the purpose of the inspections is to discover any of these defects and address them yeah here in San Antonio we have a ton of asbestos and so that that's another thing as well to dress the same way yeah oh we've got a question that came in they said our home warranties a waste of money and what about replacing roofs near the end of the life instead of awaiting a problem home in its two decades old original roof i don't think it needs it but well i don't think home warranties are a waste of money um i've got a transaction right now where we found very few items on the inspection report but the home warranty company is addressing those for the seller i represent the buyer so those are being addressed by the home warranty company um so that's great for the seller and um and like Aaron said it's a great gift for realtors to to gift their client and as far as the roof goes really depends on the area i mean you can have a roof that's you know supposed to be a 25-year roof but there's very little material left on it just because the the climate's harsher there or something so um if you're look yeah that's i don't know that's just a situational thing if you're staying in the home um and you want to prevent any leaks and you've got the ability to replace the roof yeah don't necessarily go by the age assigned to the roof have have a roofing somebody that you trust go look and see how much life they say is left on it with the material that's left on the shingles yeah i would i would also say it depends on the type of roofing you do so depending on where you are in the in the country there's different types of roofing um asphalt roofing usually breaks down quicker than most other types um unless it's wood shake wood shake breaks down faster than than asphalt so if you have either wood shake or asphalt definitely have a roofing company come out and assess um you know if you've got aluminum or a tin roof you know you can get into you know how old that is and and if it's rusting out those types of things but most roofs you know last 20 to 30 years and if it's at the end of its life on an asphalt roof if you're looking up and you can see if it sparkles that basically means the material is gone and in what you're seeing there is fiberglass coming through and so it means the roof is pretty well shot and should be replaced and so so if that's the case then is it your home owner's insurance that covers that or is it a warranty cover a warranty that would cover that neither would cover that unless there's an act of god you know a health storm a wind storm something along those lines oh you're going to be paying for that out of pocket and so if you're looking to sell your home it's a good idea to go ahead and get a new roof on there that will probably come up either way unless you're willing to come down whatever the price of the roof is on the cell of your home because that's more than likely something that would be negotiated in on that cell because somebody's going to have to replace it if it's not you so back to the earlier question do you do that before you put your home on the market or do you wait until the inspector says ah your roof is shot and you need a new roof and yeah it's going to depend on how much money you have to work with what you're looking at as a return on your home and if it makes more sense to take that out of the purchase price for the sell price of your home when you're going to sell it or if you've got you know the 15-20 thousand dollars to replace it right now to do that no if you have a new roof on your home it will sell for more in the market right yeah then and and that's situational so well like Aaron said if you're in a position where you can go ahead and put the new roof on it's going to make your stand out if you're not then you're going to you're going to factor that into the pricing and when an appraiser comes out and they're looking at three homes that have sold in your neighborhood one just had a brand new roof and a brand new HVAC system and yours is original to the home that's going to factor in so if that's going to that's going to help dictate your price in the marketplace so does the appraiser come up with the price then or is the home inspector that tells you this needs to be replaced no the appraiser won't want to sign uh well they won't tell you how much it's going to cost you to replace it but your home inspector will tell you um this is the average lifespan of a roof with this material this is uh what you can expect from yours but this is the amount of material that's gone from your roof that's protecting your structure you might have three years left on it you might be at the very end of the life of your roof so the inspector is going to tell you how much where there is on it if it if it is imminent that it needs to be replaced the appraiser their job is to let the lender know what that home is worth so they're just going to factor that in that you know if the home's got a brand new roof on it it's going to be worth more than the one that's got a 20 year roof on it so that'll help you with pricing it or deciding okay am I going to shell off the money for this or am I just going to reduce my uh my asking price by to offset that all right now if that's true and I believe you when you say that but then my next question is at what point do you draw the line because I know a roof is a great big part of the house the so are the shingles on the outside of or so so is it what do you call the the siding yes the siding on the house and so is the landscaping do you replace the shrubs and rip out the trees and put a new sod at what point do you say uh the windows are kind of old they're 20 years old I go with butter what do you call them solar energy efficient windows and all that stuff at what point do you draw the line and say the house is what it is I think that has a lot to do with the experience of your realtor if you choose to use one they're going to come in and assess your home as a whole and see what would give you the most amount of money for your market in terms of the things that you should fix and what would make sense and then also they're going to talk to you about your budget and how much you're wanting to get out of the home and that would determine if you're replacing shrubs and doing landscaping and replacing windows or if you're selling the home as is because because both are options and it's really going to depend on where the seller is at and the experience of your realtor wow okay cool that was a really great answer I want to talk for a second about legal disputes legal disputes is one of those things that keeps coming up from some of the fears that homeowners have that there could be legal disputes anything from details of the deal to price of the home the closing dates property boundary lines I mean it can get it can get nasty when it comes to some some people whose stories we've heard bickering and fighting over the boundary lines like oh no they took two and a half feet of my property and you know if they don't give it back or if the neighbor doesn't give it back I'm not buying the house and I mean crazy stuff where where do you draw the line as a realtor let the attorneys fight that out I mean it really that comes down to those are legal issues and there are in North Carolina we are cautioned at every turn to remind us we're not attorneys we can't write amendments to our contract we can't pretend to practice law so that's I'm fortunate that I am in a state that real estate closings are done by attorneys and so they can find those disputes surveys aren't one of the one of the most often one of the legal issues we very often see are the property boundaries and those you can discover through surveys and surveys aren't typically required depends on your lender that they might but typically a survey is not required so I recommend in almost every situation that my buyer has a survey done so that they can learn of those disputes and they can be settled prior to closing I know that when we bought the home that we're in right now be based on the last home that we that we had and the the things that came up when we bought that home I know that when we bought this home like I saved all the paperwork like just that and this was a new home that we had built but I saved like the blueprints of the house and I saved like the land surveys and I saved everything not to be neurotic of it but I was like you know what I don't want to pay to have all this done again if all this information is the same because like the square footage of the house is not going to change and the land the the lot of the land is not going to change I don't think right not unless you're adding on to it or building something no we didn't but I just wanted to make sure that like oh if I if you know if I don't have to go through this again for the next house let me go ahead and save all the documentation and you know all the warranties for all the appliances and I mean like I said neurotic but I just wanted to make sure I didn't now that's very thorough and that's going to be great when you do sell that's going to be great information for the new buyer to have there's a there's a and the neighborhood where I live open fiber is being installed the and a lot of neighbors are up in arms about that and don't they feel like you know we didn't want this it's on our property but now the developer it's up to the developer if they want to have an easement a utility easement and they negotiate that with you know if open fiber comes in and they want to install this this fiber and the developer says yeah you can do it you know then the homeowner really has no recourse for that so they a lot of people felt like oh they had a legal right to fight this and no you don't that was an easement that was that was made prior to you purchasing the home so speaking of things that you have to disclose uh Teresa has a question and she says excuse me had a large tree in my yard raised a patio concrete up some had the tree taken down and also removed the root that was causing the issue is this an issue that would need to be disclosed on the sale of the home I would recommend disclosing everything if you if you've done anything on your property I would disclose it especially if it was affecting the foundation or the patio there's no harm in disclosing it and people are at least people can trust you going into that situation they know you're not trying to hide anything would it be the make or break on a home of someone purchasing it or not probably not but I would say always disclose always disclose because yeah at least here in Texas for three years people can come back and see the homeowner if there's deficiencies found that we're not disclosed on that disclosure and we're real estate there's attorneys involved so much of the time it's best just to disclose I would I always encourage my clients to just disclose it absolutely and it seems and very often in real estate transactions even the nicest people can really get their defenses up so you know something like that would come up and it was just an oversight just get it out of the way like Aaron says just disclose everything try and keep everything transparent and approach the transaction with goodwill that's great advice what do you do if you have difficult or unresponsive buyers where a request has been made and like you said there's a three-year window where people can come back and they can sue or whatever what if you're in the process of trying to resolve something and then like the potential buyers just ghost you I've actually run into this a lot over the past couple of months on both sides where people have just gone on vacation in the middle of a transaction that just disappeared for a week or two I had a client here two weeks ago just missed their closed date entirely whoa yeah I mean it was five days after closing is that they actually got ahold of us and said hey where do we stand and I said you are standing in the middle of a legal battle is where you stand you disappeared during the closing and you never showed up for your closing date here's the attorney's number and so this this has happened it has happened a lot I was just negotiating a contract with a seller who just disappeared for four days ended up having some back issues and went to the hospital and just didn't answer the phone and this was after an agreement was sent in and supposed to be signed and so it happens a lot I would say that time frames very very clear on time frames and letting people know the expectation of what's coming next and then figuring out if they can meet those expectations so that attorneys don't have to get involved because it's it's a legal matter at that point you've committed on contracts to do something and you're contractually bound and so just to walk away or go on vacation or hey I'll respond in a few days it's just not acceptable if you don't want to get sued so if you do get sued is that a civil suit um as as far as the how the it goes through court at that point that becomes a broker attorney situation in our state okay and so as soon as attorneys get involved in a transaction a broker steps in and that is their job they're going to handle it with the attorneys and they're going to fight that in court and so how that's ironed out in court at that point the realtor's job is to step back and let the attorneys take it over and in north carolina our contract is reviewed every year and is modified every year and every scenario that that the attorneys who draft these contracts can imagine are incorporated into that and so most of those things time is of the essence and you know it lists deadlines for and and stipulations for the obligations of the seller and obligations of the buyer and when both parties execute that contract they're agreeing to those terms so yeah you know fortunately it's a legal document and the attorneys will handle that and the appropriate legal manner and like Aaron said the realtor step back we are not attorneys and and can't practice law so but if you are in a real estate transaction be present be mindful of the documents that you signed and adhere to to what you said you were going to commit to which brings me to the next big fear which is the fear of negotiation so I don't I don't want to assume anything but let's suppose for example that I was the one that had the back injury or whatever and I just skipped off in the middle of the closing of my my house and now I'm in the middle of a legal battle and I'm thinking oh no I've got legal fees and I'm going to get raked through the coals because I screwed up and I didn't keep my end of the bargain can I just back out of the contract all together and just say hey I'm not going to do this or is that is that part of the legal battle now and I'm obligated to to follow through and then pay the attorney fees and all that stuff yeah you'd be in breach of contract depending on on all of the when it was and all of that very likely you'd be in breach of contract and you would have to make the buyer whole um so any fees that they've paid for appraisals inspections their earnest money deposits their due diligence fees you'd be required to make those whole and then um you know whatever the attorneys determined so that is a legitimate fear and I can't just say fooled you guys and then like make it all go away but now I'm I'm on the hook for it and I'm responsible to do whatever comes next yeah yeah what if that's really expensive don't do it don't do it don't do it all right so if we learned one thing today it's uh once you make an agreement and it's on it's in contract and it's on the dotted line do not walk away and make sure that your phone is turned on and that you can be reached and that if it goes to a cell phone service or whatever that you have a direct call through a number where you put your realtor on the pass through so it comes directly to you and that you don't ghost anyone but it's not that you're moving forward in good faith that that carries that that carries a lot of weight our contract says that if there's proof that you're moving forward in good faith you can't close on this date because of extenuating circumstances that will be factored into it but if you're just ghosting and just you know on a beach somewhere yeah that doesn't count I don't think it counts what about losing money on the sale fear of losing money on the sale like I know for example that in North Carolina where I live a year ago there were people knocking on my door going hey can I buy your house I'm like no it's not for sale but now the value is not as much as it was a year ago so if I was going to sell my house now thinking that a year ago I could have got like top dollar for it today I'm probably not going to get top dollar for what it was a year ago people are not going to pay over asking price and all that stuff so what what happens and do you just then wait and say well I'll wait till the prices come back up again so that I can make all the money on the house or do you how does that work when I'm afraid I'm going to lose money on the sale of my home when I should have sold it a year ago and I didn't well this is that happened to me um years ago before I was in real estate it was when they caught you know 2008 um I had a townhouse and I wanted to sell it and I reached out to the realtor who had done most of the work in that neighborhood and they said no we're not taking any more listings they're just not selling so I um met I met with another realtor and it was determined that I was going to have to bring money to closing I would have lost money on the sale so I it was a pretty strong rental market though so I rented my property and had great success with that so that may be an option for someone if they can rent the property out and then sell it at some point down the road or wait for the market to to get stronger but you it kind of depends on where you are too because it can kind of come out in the wash if you're selling lower you're probably buying lower too you're so if you're selling your house and looking to buy a house if you're selling high you're buying high if you're selling low you're buying low so I just can't wait until the money comes back up and then I sell a house for all the money then I buy a cheaper house and buy a cheap house yeah it doesn't work that way yeah I had people with all that boom going on people were like oh brooks sell my house okay where are you going well I don't know well yeah I probably can't afford to go anywhere well and that's the thing because we did look at I mean so many people knock on your door and they're like hey get up by your house and they're like well well I don't know what does a home cost and when I looked at the homes that we're selling in my area I was like well heck no I'm not going to sell my house because I've got less that's owed on the house that anything I could get into why don't I just stay where I am because I'm already happy here I just I like where I am right now why would I move the real estate is so situational and you really need to be able to lean on your on your realtor and all of the other professionals involved your attorney inspector survey or you really do need to to work with people that you feel good about and and lean on them because there's so many variables you said something a minute ago that caught my attention about renting the house and I wonder if you were renting the house are the banks going to work with you to do that or is this like a rent for sale like I rent you my house and each of the payments goes towards the sale of the home and then I'm financing it as a buyer how does that work I was just going to say we run into that a lot here and the reason we run into that a lot is because we deal a lot with military and they're usually putting a little to no money down which means in a year from now they're going to owe just as much or more on their home that they bought it for and so they turn around to sell it and there's there's no equity in the house and they're going what do I do with it I'm PCS-ing out and and I don't know what to do with my home I don't personally handle renter rentals but I've got really good rental companies that I work with that will come in and take that house get it on the market rent it out etc we're dealing with a situation right now where a client did a helock a home equity loan so they could purchase into another home and rent their home out because there was no equity in it and they didn't have money to bring to closing on their other home so there's all kinds of creative ways that you can do real estate is really going to depend on your agent and if that agent handles rentals but most agents know really good rental companies that they work with and they're usually happy to bring that company in and work something out and again that's going to be based on the market what's going on in that neighborhood and how much you can get out of the property there's usually good management companies as well that will manage the rental part so is that a property management company property management because most homeowners are going I don't I've never been a landlord I don't know how to take care of a tenant I don't want to fix toilets in the middle of the night like if something happens and so having your realtor bring in third-party companies that can help facilitate that is really standard in our industry and it'll give you know the person having to move or sell that peace of mind that yes maybe I don't have equity today but I can lease out my home for another 24 months while I go to Germany and a company is going to take care of that and I won't have to worry about it because some some money coming in can offset the price of the mortgage right so again if the house is totally upside down we've had we've had situations where people aren't cash flowing on the home in the rental market but now they're only paying $200 or $300 a month to hold that home while it's being leased out and it's not a huge mortgage payment they're able to cover those costs and still have an asset that will be appreciating inequity over time on the flip side of that we see people that profit two three four hundred dollars a month so it depends on the market in the home but there's always a workable solution that's I mean real estate is flexible yeah and like like exactly like Aaron said there's so many variables there are so many professionals that that we rely on and all of these fears that buyers have there's generally a solution to every problem you may have to get creative you may have to lean on some of those third-party vendors but work with people that you trust and more often than not you're going to come up with a solution well you guys this was so incredibly helpful thank you so much for joining me today for answering all these questions I know that I speak on behalf of a lot of the people that joined us today on some of the questions and concerns we will be answering questions in the comments and the notes below on the replay of this if you still have questions bring those in we're going to be meeting back here fingers crossed I believe that both Aaron and Brooke are coming back next week same time same place and they're going to be answering more of your real estate questions I'm going to throw in a couple of cleaning questions as we come because I know we got lots of house cleaning businesses that are watching this going hey how how do we work more with realtors the move in move out clean is a huge part of the the moving business so thank you guys so much for including me in this Brooke tell our listeners where they can go to to find you and learn more about you so again Brooke Bryant and Charlotte and go to ask Brooke Bryant and any questions that you have I'll be happy to try and answer I'm in North Carolina in South Carolina I'm licensed so that's the area that I know about don't know much about Texas but yeah if I can help I'm happy to do it thank you so much for your time today and Aaron where can our listeners go and find out and learn more about you or work with you yeah that's going to be a ask Aaron Brown and again I'm based out of the San Antonio area but we as realtors usually have pretty strong networks across the country and so if you're buying or selling you know from any part of the country you can usually get a hold of us and we can point you in the right direction or get you connected with a really good realtor in your area so we appreciate you guys and this was really fun we look forward to next week this was thanks again I'm Angela ask Angela Brown on all the social medias and until this time same place same time next week we will see you and have a great week thank you have a great week have a great week


I am Monica Deshpande, I am with Sindhan Limited and I am from Pune. When I came here for UX in India, I was told that it was going to be a 15 minute talk and I actually came prepared. But when I actually started, I sat here and I have listened to a lot of presentations and I realized this is going to go down the down. So what we are going to down do is we are going to simply have a conversation about what this particular topic was about that was bridging the gap between user experience and customer experience. So like I said, when I came in, it was all about giving a talk and I had to come prepared with some really knowledgeable sentences and everything like that. But I realized that if I had to actually interact with everyone, these things are not going to matter. I would need to get down to everyone's level and actually sit with y'all and have a conversation with y'all. So what I am going to do now is I am just going to relate user experience and customer experience with what I am doing right now. So let's take an example. From your perspective, user experience would be what you see on the board, that's your presentation. What you hear from me would be a part of your user experience. But would it actually provide value from customer experience perspective? So this particular gap that is always there between user experience and customer experience is what we actually need to look into. Now I am going to take the help of the presentation and I won't actually walk through all the details. The next slide talks a bit about the details as to why customer experience is getting into a lot of focus. Now, y'all are users. You have been using a lot of devices and you have been using and voicing your opinion pretty clearly. You yourself mentioned earlier when you said you wanted to hear a lot more examples rather than just... There are people at the back who say that it's quite boring to listen to people coming here and just talking, talking, talking without actually validating whether we are understanding things or not. So where should we want to share it between what is user experience and what is customer experience? So what we are doing is we will see those aspects as well as to why I feel that user experience differs slightly from customer experience. Now, just to summarize it, like I was saying earlier, users have started demanding, have started voicing what their needs are. This has actually brought the users and the business teams closer because of which business is having to actually stand up and take measures and do what the users need them to do. So moving to the next slide, we obviously know as to why customer experience is coming into focus. With all the digital enterprise coming into picture, there is a lot of focus on analytics, on mobile, on internet of things, on digital as such. The mobile has also played a huge role in this. Now, when we talk about user experience and the whole user experience or whole customer experience, there is a lot more that is involved. User experience would focus on the usage of a particular application or a particular product. When we talk of customer journeys, when we talk of customer experience, we are talking about encompassing a whole lot of other things. Now, this actually takes me back to my college days when I was reading a bit about marketing and I had come across a term called as whole product. I don't know if anyone of you are familiar with that term, but this whole product is a term which was first coined by Regis McKenna and later popularized by Jeffrey Moore in his book, Crossing the Chasm. Now, this particular definition that is there of the whole product says that the whole product includes the functionality which is then augmented to finally give you a whole product. Now, relating back to customer experience, I felt it would be good to define it that the expected product will still be building a great user experience for the application, but supplementing it with unique touch points along with inputs from the marketing department and the results from the social listening, analysis from unstructured data and all the other sources to personalize it would be a feather in the hat and then touching upon all other non-digital areas would provide the end user with a whole customer experience. Now, here if you notice, I am focusing more on digital areas mainly because I come from an IT service background. So, IT service industry has always focused on the digital aspects of the digital touch points of customer experience and not on the other aspect. Now, as user experience professionals in the industry in an IT service industry, if we are to go beyond the digital touch points and actually understand customer experience and extend to that level, then what is it that we can do additionally? So, for that I will just quickly walk you through the four C's actually. Now, this is something that it is a very typical marketing term. Marketers defined this and this was defined by Robert Lauterbaum in 1993 and they call it as consumer convenience, cost and communication. So, these are the four C's of marketing. Now, if you see these four C's you will realize that consumer focuses on the users which from user experience perspective also we also need to focus on this aspect. When you think of convenience, it is nothing but the where and how. So, where and how is nothing but then number of touch points that the marketing would define for a particular brand, particular product, particular application. Costs would definitely be finances that would be involved, but additionally what would also be involved is the total cost of ownership, which would include things like say, if a particular user had to switch from one service to another, the time that he would actually spend in switching the services. All these things would be the total cost of ownership and the final thing would be communication which is nothing but the dialogue that the brand has with the consumer. So, this is as far as four C's are concerned as the marketing angle. From user experience perspective to sort of market to the four C's what I did was I put user experience in four angles.  First is people, we all are a part of it. Problem. Problem is nothing but our user names, the problems, the business perceptions and the user perceptions that come with it. The fur is the project. Now, why do I say project? Project is because after a person is identified, after a problem is identified, what needs to be done is a tangible result needs to come out of it. You cannot just have an idea for a problem to be solved and not have a tangible product out of it or tangible solution. So, that's why I call it as a project and the final aspect is proof. Now, proof becomes very crucial in user experiences because unless and until we all gather proofs about whether there has been sufficient return of investment or whether there is further scope for improvement, it's not going to be possible for us to convince people that what we are doing is a good job or no. Now, we've seen four C's and we've seen four P's. Now, if we have to put these together, what we would get is this. Another question is we are your team. This is where the marketing teams are. The question is how do you bridge this gap? If you see, basically the same principles are there, but the marketing teams looks at things differently and the user experience seems to look at things differently. We tend to look at it from only a user perspective and marketing teams tend to look at it from a business perspective as well. So, as user experience professionals, it's going to be mandated on us that we extend ourselves beyond just understanding the users but going to the level of understanding business and understanding the impact as well. So, while I was doing a particular project, I realized that it would be necessary for me to come up with a sort of guideline for me to actually bridge this particular gap because I wanted to go beyond user experience. I did hold a call in the marketing plane, but I definitely wanted to contribute in a way that would say that, yes, I am contributing to something beyond UX. So, for that, what I did was I created a guideline for myself which I called as the four I's. Now, these four I's are combined all these aspects and are focused on one, the first side which is individual. So, when we talk of considering user needs, we are also talking of personalizing user needs. It's not only a collective mask that we are looking at, but we are also looking at individuals. So, we have to come up with a strategy for meeting user needs that is individual. Then, obviously, IDEA. I need to come up with ideas to modify process to resolve problems. Now, mind you, I mentioned modified process here. I did not say come up with a unique solution or something. When I say IDEA, it's not only about finding a solution to the problem, but it is also about finding where and how I can modify the process to achieve what I really want. That is what IDEA is about. Then, obviously, innovative. Now, when I say innovative, what I mean is using technology and understanding the total cost of ownership, I have to come up with innovative solutions. Unless and until I do that, it's not going to be possible for me to go beyond UX. And last, but not the least, obviously, improve. Now, improve is along with gathering proofs for return of investment and establishing a dialogue with the customer while doing that. I am not going to be able to improve or increase the scope of business. I am going to leave you as with this thought because there is a lot that can go in it. Any questions we can take up right now? I have few minutes. Any questions? I would like to end this by just actually. Yes, go ahead. When you said that customer deals with the business goals and financial goals, that part. Here, basically, user experience is improving the existing experience in your better experience for the user. How is customer and user resilient? It's an interactive thing. What I understand is, from user experience, we are bringing to a point of engagement. But I think the ultimate conversion is what makes them the customer. So, which is that that's your plan for them. Not that is right. We'll have a conversation after the session. Please, the proper UX is in place. Definitely impact on the customer. Correct. But UX will always have an impact on the final customer. But customer experience is still more of a marketing burden right now in the industry. So, the trend that is seen not only I see it, but even forestry folks and other folks are now saying that customer experience is coming more into focus. And that's where user experience professionals, if they want to stay in the competition, they are going to need to compete and they will need to understand marketing terms or marketing angles to actually ensure that what they develop is not only a user experience, but a full customer experience. But the term actually initiated from e-commerce, we are getting more and more propelled. When designing a product or something, in research and analysis stage, they don't take care of this business. They do care. They can see if you actually go to study all these things, you will realize that all the methodologies that are there for gathering consumer details or user details and all those methodologies that all are always the same. These are the results from these that we are actually looking at. So, marketers define or come up with that differently and we pick up different results from it. So, that's what it is. Thank you.


Okay, move out. When a young man enters the United States Army, he begins a new chapter in life. The familiar surroundings of home and family are suddenly removed, and he's thrust into a strange new world. A regulation haircut quickly changes his appearance. The uniform of the United States Army completes his separation from civilian life. The new soldier's training is intensive and designed to obtain prompt and strict obedience. During a soldier's duty hours, there's little time for personal expression. Each man is too busy fulfilling his role as a member of the Great Army Team. In addition to his military training, however, each man needs recreation if he's to be a well-adjusted soldier. The Army is keenly aware of this need for individual recreation and relaxation. Army Special Services, under the direction of the Adjutant General, is providing the answer to this problem through a great variety of programs, services, and facilities around the world. Wherever American troops are stationed, Army Special Services is finding ways to serve a soldier. The soldier standing in the rain on this induction day may feel that he has left his personal interests and pleasures behind him. Nothing could be further from the truth. Here, a Special Services officer is telling the new men of the various recreation facilities and activities available during their off-duty hours at this Army post and other installations around the world. These Special Services, as the Special Services of the other branches of our armed forces, are for the physical, cultural, and mental recreation of each individual. At many Army posts, service clubs with a great variety of activities are available to all personnel. These clubs operated by Special Services provide the soldier a pleasant place to go and relax. Highly trained directors manage the clubs and assist the guests. In many ways, the service club brings a home-like atmosphere to the man in the Army. There he finds quiet and comfort to write letters if he wishes. There are games to be played and new friendships to be formed. The Saturday night dances may be more to his liking. Fine soldier combos provide the music and everyone is a good time. Army service clubs are fulfilling their purpose all around the world, providing all of the services of a good community center at home. Aside from the service clubs, most Army posts today have excellent swimming pools and the soldiers put them to good use during their free time. A greatly diversified arts and crafts program is another major part of Special Services activity. Professional photography instruction is only one phase of this do-it-yourself activity. This worldwide program covers a great range of hand crafts. Tools and supplies for the making of jewelry are popular and can be easily used in any locality. For those who are interested in painting, the program offers every opportunity to develop a man's talents. Artists kits issued by Special Services include everything necessary to capture a lovely landscape on canvas. In painting classes, would-be Picasso's receive free instruction from professional art teachers. Canvases painted by soldier artists are highly expressive of the individual's taste. Public showings of soldier's artworks attract wide interest and more than one Army artist has gained public recognition for his work. Another outlet for creative expression is found in the ceramics classes. Here, students learn to form and glaze all kinds of ceramic objects. Work is a rewarding pastime for many men. From strips of tanned hide, they produce wallets, belts, handbags and other useful and attractive items. In some localities, there are facilities where soldiers may work on their own cars. Learning to repair automotive engines develops useful skills for any man. Interest in woodworking is high among Army men at most Army installations both at home and overseas. Complete shop facilities are available. These offer everything from small tools to the finest power equipment. Special Services hand tool kits have been used widely in Vietnam to improve troop living and recreation. Endless examples of fine cabinet work prove this phase of the arts and crafts program to be an extremely worthwhile activity. Whatever a soldier's personal preference may be, he's sure to find projects of value and interest through the special services arts and crafts program. The need for reading and learning goes on regardless of where a soldier may be stationed. Throughout the Army, libraries are a vital part of the special services function. Many of these modern facilities equal or exceed the civilian libraries available in the soldier's own hometown. Using the reference facilities of these libraries, many men and women in the service carry out research projects for off-duty education courses. Annually, thousands of service men and women earn high school diplomas and college degrees. Extensive listings of fiction including most bestsellers attract a great majority of Army men. Well-appointed reading rooms give the soldier a place in which to enjoy his latest literary choice. The library and service club music rooms provide quality record players and a large collection of the world's finest record albums and singles. There's something here for every person. With individual sets of earphones, each man can listen in private to his own selection. In this room, there's time for serenity and self. Even in remote duty station areas, the soldier is served by the special services bookmobile. The Army sees to it that any person who desires to read the world's great literature or to relax with a good novel has the opportunity to do so. On a miniaturized scale, this special services bookmobile provides the same complete service as the regular Army libraries. It even offers a fine selection of record albums. This system of taking the library to the soldier was devised to reach troop units scattered throughout Europe. The library has proven to be a great success and wherever the bookmobile goes, there are eager readers to be served. Movies. Wherever a soldier may be, there are always movies available to him. The procurement and distribution of motion pictures and the operation of the world's largest chain of movie theaters all on a self-sustaining basis is a responsibility of Army and Air Force motion picture services. Thousands of soldiers attend Army movie theaters throughout the world every day of the year during off-duty hours. Many Army movie theaters in overseas areas are comparable to the first-rate permanent post theaters found in the United States. In remote outposts around the world, it's not unusual to see first-run films playing concurrently with opening night performances in the United States. Entertainment is being brought even closer to the soldier by making him a personal participant. Even in basic training, soldier shows are produced and every effort is made to get the men to take part in them. At Fort Polk, Louisiana, for instance, tryouts for a post-wide musical show are held on a competitive basis. With musical instruments issued by special services, the men not only audition for the big show, but hold their own jam sessions. Soldier-produced entertainment at the unit level is not only fun, but it's great for the morale of the men. The biggest soldier shows are top-flight productions. They feature stars in the making. With 2,200 showings a year of copyright dramatic plays and musicals, the United States Army is the world's largest theatrical producer. All told, there are about 35,000 performances of all kinds of soldier-produced entertainment in a year. For the young man at the peak of his physical energy, athletics in one form or another is a major interest. The Army sports programs are unprecedented in size and scope. Every athletic endeavor imaginable is covered under the special services sports programs. The Army gives a man the opportunity to develop athletic skills through competition. About 56% of the young men entering the Army had never participated in an organized team sport. Spectator entertainment is another benefit of these league games. Here morale is served both on the playing field and off. Success in competitive sports has often begun with a recruits introduction to team sports through special services athletic activities. Men who have never before competed as members of a team find new capabilities and gain confidence in themselves. Every man wants to achieve recognition, and Army sports help a soldier to reach that goal. Now is an Army commander's responsibility. Through special services he's provided with organized sports programs which stimulate, develop and maintain morale, esprit de corps and physical proficiency. These programs are prepared by the special services sports director at each Army post where league games are held. In meetings like this one, these sports programs coordinated through brigade, battalion and company levels. Throughout the individual soldier is encouraged to turn out for various competitive team sports. One of the most popular team competitions is volleyball. The playing field requires minimal space and equipment consists of only a ball and a net. The game is easily learned and yet it demands skill, speed and teamwork on the part of every player. Whether for team sports or for individual use, a wide variety of excellent athletic equipment is available from special services. These sporting goods items are supplied to our soldiers without cost. Athletic equipment is issued to the men upon request and the special services office has these items wherever such an office exists. In overseas localities, athletic equipment is packed up and distributed to the men serving in the field, thus making sports activities possible almost anywhere. Many men in the service are more interested in individual sports than organized team sports. Special services provides opportunities for golfers. Tennis players are issued rackets and courts are readily available. Some men prefer the physical contact type of sports. They desire man-to-man competition in the test of wit, skill and strength. Judo training is ideal for such men. This ancient art offers various stages of achievement from novice to really expert wearers of the black belt. Conventional wrestling is another form of physical contact sport which is popular throughout the army. Hard work, skill and a fighting spirit are required to achieve victory. The successful army athlete may go on to international competitions. Here the U.S. Army's Tyrone Hollins in white defeats Germany's Werner Lohmann during the 1967 boxing championships sponsored by the International Military Sports Council. Special services athletic programs make it possible for the soldier to achieve even international recognition. Tyrone Hollins, the new international military heavyweight boxing champion, is such a man. Army athlete may even represent his country at the Olympic Games. America's Olympic running star Lieutenant Melvin Pender is an example. It was as Sergeant Pender that he competed with distinction in the 1964 Olympic Games. Here is a man who has realized his potential with the assistance of the Army Sports Program. The best coaches in the United States hold clinics for army athletic instructors. Men like Adolf Rupp, University of Kentucky's top-winning basketball coach. Hal Fischer, head coach of many all-army and arm-forces basketball teams. Jess Neely, Athletic Director of Vanderbilt and Southeastern Conference Football Hall of Fame. Rex Peary, formerly the Pittsburgh Panthers great wrestling coach. And on the right, Pat Nappy, coach of Army's champion inter-service boxing team. Special services programs are as flexible as the Army itself following the soldier wherever he may go. In Vietnam, the services offered through these various programs are even more vital to the welfare and morale of our fighting men. Whether providing paperback books or operating rest and recuperation centers, Army special services is on the job with imaginative projects and new ideas. In Saigon, the first logistical command special services library is quite similar to the Army's best in the United States. Here, Vietnamese girls log in books received from stateside. Used by thousands of soldiers, the libraries in Vietnam offer a sanctuary for writing and study. American newspapers from many major U.S. cities are flown in regularly, and the newspapers and magazines are eagerly read by servicemen and women of all ranks. As in stateside Army libraries, there is also a taped music service for the soldier's enjoyment. In addition to these facilities, the library program distributes books and magazines of all kinds to the fighting men. The motto of this distribution center is, we get it to the troops. A modern bowling alley is another special services facility in Saigon. Personnel from all over the surrounding area come here for fun and relaxation. Nurses from the nearby Army hospital find bowling a refreshing change from their arduous duties. The Army camp at Bear Cat was hewn out of jungles which were controlled by the Viet Cong until recently. Despite the raw land there, special services has helped to establish a swimming pool, service club and recreation area for the men who daily go out of this base to fight. Looking at the service club here, it seems like any others back home, except for lack of landscaping, and even that will come in time. WeGolf hardly seems synonymous with Vietnam.  Only the terrain, available transportation and relative security of an area may limit the variety of activities which special services can provide in the forward areas. Here at An K, Vietnam soldiers of the 1st Cavalry Division, Air Mobile, have created a swimming pond in the local river. As elsewhere, sports programs in Vietnam are very popular. This healthy physical outlet for men living at close range to the enemy offers considerable pleasure and relaxation in a tense situation. Taking part in vigorous sports activities like this volleyball game increases the men's physical conditioning, alertness and reflexes. Soldiers are stationed in Vietnam, short of the battle zone, they receive athletic equipment. Perhaps the best known activity of special services of the armed forces, as far as the public is concerned, is the USO show. Through these shows, special services bring the great entertainment stars to Vietnam. The Bob Hope Show is one of the highlights of the year. Martha Ray is another favorite with the troops. These USO shows make it possible for our soldiers to see such noted performers as Comedienne Phyllis Diller, Songstress Sinita Bryant, lovely dancing singing star Joey Heverton and a great many others. On a continuing day-to-day basis, soldiers in Vietnam are rotated out of the battle zones and sent to rear areas in Vietnam and to other countries in Southeast Asia for rest and recuperation. This process is known as R&R. Here again, Army Special Services takes over by operating the R&R program. For its in-country R&R center, special services operate a beach resort at Vung Tau, only a short distance from Saigon. In this peaceful setting, weary soldiers can unwind and regenerate themselves. To a veteran of many battles in the jungle, R&R means a soft bed with clean white sheets. It means the luxury of running hot water and a lot of it for a professional Lady Barber. Additional activities are available in another recreational area just outside of Saigon. Water sports are enjoyed by those who like boating or water skiing. Dancers help to take a man's mind off the war. And special services arranges R&R trips to Hawaii. This gives many soldiers the opportunity to see their wives and families again, even if for a limited time. Here in the soothing atmosphere of Hawaii, the soldier is refreshed and filled with vigor once again to return to duty in Vietnam. From the first day when each man becomes a member of the U.S. Army, his welfare as an individual is of utmost importance to special services. As time passes, every soldier comes to realize that in the Army, as elsewhere in life, his personal values and what he gives of himself are recognized to the fullest degree. His experience in the Army results in the broader development of a man's knowledge and personal character. The maturity of mind and body are achieved. Whether across the seas or at home, the effort continues as special services of the United States Army seeks more and newer ways to serve a soldier. We're two and a merry month of May. Two and a merry month of May. We're far away.


Хайа една. В тази лесън ми йдем да поговорим ото ме се пътнете свяку и ото сме се към държава татинта в товаенияен програма. Вперете, имаме сметър. Let's make an easy function that prints text high everyone. So we'll define function. Let's call it high everyone. Our function doesn't need any argument, so parentheses will be empty. In the body of our function, we'll write code for printing text to the screen. So we'll write print high everyone. Then we want to call our function in our program outside of the high everyone function. We'll call it by typing high everyone. You can notice that this function call is same as first line of defining function without keyword def. So it's same, but without word def. Now let's save our program as, for example, high everyone.py. And now let's run it. And as you can see, our program is calling function high everyone, which prints text high everyone. We can also call our function few times. Let's call it, for example, 3 times. Let's save it again. Let's run our program. And as you can see, program is calling now function high everyone 3 times. And they print this text 3 times. That's all for now. See you in next video. Happy coding.


Hi, I'm Denny Amundsen, Director of the State Department of Developmental Services. You know, it wasn't too long ago when many people believed that persons with developmental disabilities were not capable of making their own decisions about how to live their lives. And that all important lifestyle decisions must be made for them by their case managers or their care providers or family members. The video you're about to see disproves all of these old notions. It shows that persons with developmental disabilities are not only capable of making their own decisions but are becoming experts in self-advocacy and leadership. They're not only making decisions about where they live, where they learn, where they work, where they play, but they're also taking major leadership roles in the public policy and legislative arenas. Let's take a look at some of these leaders in action. People with developmental disabilities are emerging as leaders to create changes on behalf of consumers throughout the state and the nation. There are many opportunities and organizations that provide consumers with the chance to become more involved by speaking out and who better to speak out for themselves than them. One of these individuals is Michael Long, Consumer Liaison for the Department of Developmental Services, the first position of its kind. Michael travels, speaks at conferences and acts on behalf of consumers throughout the state. If we want to have a full inclusion society with developmental disabilities, I think one of the first important things is people with developmental disabilities have a responsibility to go out and educate the public. Part of Michael's job is being an active member of CAC, the Consumer Advocacy Council. The CAC advises the staff and director of the department on issues involving policies, programs, legislation and regulations affecting the services and supports to consumers. I want to say a lot about the upcoming self-advocacy conference. And I want to know if you can send us the material one month in advance. Do we have a motion on the floor from somebody? Another effective organization dedicated to serving people with developmental disabilities is People First. People First is run by consumers for consumers. The goal of People First is to help individuals reach their potential in their living, working and playing lives. Capital People First meets bimonthly at the state capitol in Sacramento. Tom Hopkins has been actively involved in People First for many years. It's really helpful to find a People First group. I was lucky when I got into independent living and my independent living counselor got me involved with People First and I found out, you know what? I'm not the only one with the same problem. I'm not the only one who's got the fears. I'm not the only one who says, look, man, I'm scared of making that first step.  But People First, you know, that was the whole point of People First was, you know, how to face those big changes in your life. If you have a problem or if you want to change any part of your program, as long as it's in the IPP, as long as it's already written down in the IPP, that's when it can be changed. But you have to get together with your counselor and decide what you yourself want to do. The law says that people have the right to make the choices about where to live, where to work, who to live with, who to have for friends, what to do for fun, what to do in the years ahead. There's all of your rights and you have the right to choose what you want. Leadership training is available from many different groups. Partners in Policy Making provides a formal training program for consumers and their families to work to change policies on behalf of people with developmental disabilities. The rewards are many for people who make the choice to work to make a difference. Number one, the basic benefit of everything, of all advocacy, all policy making input is the fact that you are exercising your constitutional right to input to your government. It's your government. It's not the government. You are the government. And therefore, if you exercise your input to the government, you'll get a big hit and you'll love it. It'll be very soul satisfying. Another way for individuals to utilize leadership skills is by joining a board of directors like an area board or regional center board. Many decisions that affect people are driven by these dedicated boards. There are new laws that require that individuals with disabilities must be on many of these boards. This is a reflection of the kinds of changes now being implemented in the system. I am acting chairperson for area board. Wanda Williams, Napa County area board. Thank you, Smidley. I'm first consumer on North Bay Region Center board. We have for years advocated for people who we're serving to be leaders on our boards of directors. And finally, that's coming to fruition. So on our board, we have some very strong people with excellent backgrounds. We have a person who used to live in a developmental center who now lives in the community. And I think that's an incredibly important perspective. That's what's so exciting about having the people that we're serving in those roles and telling us how to make the system better. They've been there and they're there now. So having them as members of the board is critical. The public needs educating from people with disabilities about their abilities. They don't know what it's all about unless we talk and show them what we can really do. The impact of an individual testifying in the legislature is very powerful. This is where your voice can be heard and laws and policy can begin to change. There's a big need here in helping people with disabilities and have to live out in the community. They are people who are disabled and can make it. You never know what it's like. You've never been there. I know these people need a chance in the community. They could do a lot of things if you give them a chance. Connie Martinez is on her way to visit Senator Dan McCorkadel, a longtime leader and expert in the field of developmental disabilities. Senator McCorkadel recently authored a major bill updating the Lanterman Act and setting the vision and nature of the rights for people with developmental disabilities. You've done a good job at representing yourself. I think it's because each teacher will open the person and say, we need to help Connie to speak and to realize I have a thought and I have a plan and we can work together. Well, it's all necessary. Some people need some help and others need others and we ought to make it possible for people to have whatever help they need. And not to realize I haven't got something to give. And that's something really precious thing. Like you say, you plan a seed and go on and then that grows and you talk to people that changes people's attitudes and then pretty soon they see somebody else changes their attitude there. What is the process? Perhaps you and I, I mean I have respect for you because you see me not little, but you see me go person. Being active and using leadership skills does make a difference in the lives of everyone. There is no sound that goes unheard. The spirit of leadership is strong and moving forward into the future on behalf of all people with developmental disabilities.