We recently connected with Liz Waldmann and have shared our conversation below.
Liz, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about one of the craziest things you’ve experienced in your journey so far.
In this business, there are a lot of crazy stories, so I’ll share my most recent crazy story. I got a call from a couple looking to buy a house and explained to them that I typically like to have a buyer consultation to go through the process and discuss their wants and needs. I was headed out of town for a couple days the next day so I offered to meet with them on the following Monday. There was pause on their end followed by them saying that their lease was actually expiring in 6 weeks. Normally, it takes about 4 weeks to close and about 8 weeks of searching before going under contract, so my timeline was just cut in half. We scheduled a zoom meeting for that night and started the process. For anybody that doesn’t know, the real estate market now is very challenging for buyers. Many homes for sale are receiving multiple offers with prices well above what they’ve been listed at. So for about 2 straight weeks of going out almost every day to look at homes and lose out on offers, we started cutting it really close to the “drop dead” day where my clients would have to explore other options. With two days to spare, we went and looked at 4 homes and they decided the next day to offer on one of them. On that drop dead day, at about 7 PM, the seller’s countered the offer and my clients accepted it with just hours to spare. The timeline from under contract to close was a little tight but we were moving through it quickly when a week out from closing, the appraisal came back low. In a low appraisal situation, the buyers can bring the difference in cash, the sellers can drop the price, they can meet in the middle, or the buyers can walk away. My clients couldn’t walk away and they didn’t have the full difference in cash. On top of that, the sellers didn’t want to drop the price the full amount, so it was left to meeting in the middle. With very little extra cash to offer from my clients, I decided to offer up some of my commission as well. And with that offer, we waited. And waited. And waited. My clients were starting to scramble and look for rentals when I finally got a response back that the sellers would accept the offer. So, with about 6 days to spare, my clients found out they wouldn’t be homeless.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I’m born and raised Coloradoan who grew up in Centennial and went to college at CU Boulder. After graduating from college, I didn’t know what I wanted to do, so I reached out to a temp agency where I had a number of temp jobs before landing a permanent position in the software sales division of a large tech company. After a couple of years, I quickly realized the corporate world wasn’t for me but I wasn’t sure what world was for me. My father, who had retired from flying commercial planes and got into real estate as a hobby, kept bugging me to join him and I kept brushing him off. Finally, after months of him suggestion the idea, I took him up on the offer. Now, eight and a half years later I couldn’t be happier with where I’m at and that decision I made. I pride myself on having built a career on first time home buyers and use my hand-holding approach with non-first time home buyers as well. My thought being that the industry changes so much, if you’re not buying homes every year, it’s like going through the whole process for the first time again. I love being able to help someone who comes to me with a need and be able to provide them with that need. Moving is one of the most stressful life experiences, and my whole goal is to do everything I can to keep those stressors as low as possible for my clients. Everyone’s situation is unique and different, and it has always been my dad and my belief that what matters most is that our client has made the best decision(s) for their life and needs, even if that means they don’t buy or sell a house. It’s not about us. And the thing that I’m most proud of, is that this job has allowed me to be able to give back to the community through volunteer work and donations that I’ve been lucky enough to see impact many people’s lives.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
I think that growing up we’re taught that we have to know the answer and we have to be right. At times I would be panicked or feel stupid or unprofessional if I didn’t know the answer to something, but I quickly learned that it’s better to admit that you don’t know the answer and that’ll you try to get the answer than to make something up.
How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?
Continuing the relationship with clients long after they’ve bought or sold with us has been a huge focus for our business. So, we put together about 4 events a year. We’ll drop off flowers in the spring, host a pool party in the summer, and deliver pies around Thanksgiving. But, our biggest event is the final fireworks game for the Rockies at Coors field. We reserve about 175 tickets all together so we can catch up, watch the game, and end the night with one of the best fireworks shows in town. Beyond those, we’ll do little deliveries every now and then of peaches, or valentine’s candy, or girl scout cookies, as well as getting together for coffee or lunch. Most recently, I put together a March Madness group for clients where it was free for them to enter and the top 3 brackets won Amazon gift cards. Reminding our clients that we still exist and are still doing business, while showing them that we appreciate their business is what we strive to do.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.YourPilotHome.com
- Instagram: @waldyface
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/YourPilotHome
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/liz-waldmann-cne-0a006884
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/yourpilothomere
Image Credits
Lyndsey Leach Photography