Konerko Trio

Jamie Garber, one of our agents, has much to be proud about. Last year both of her kids graduated from medical school. Jamie is always one of the first ones in each morning with unusual consistency. Jamie is an old-fashioned real estate agent. She practiced in Jersey before moving to Florida over a decade ago. Heavy use of manilla folders along with our CRM. She never misses a date and grabs the other side by the ankle and doesn’t let go until the deal is done. When you worked with Jamie those commission checks she earned made the world a better place as a single mom getting those kids through graduate school.

Or so I thought.

Everyone has become a doctor in the last year. Even the doctors tell me this. The patient comes in with a Chat GPT diagnosis that cures the ailment. A lawyer I talked to said the same thing. Why do any of this schooling and become a “so-called expert” when instead of 7 years of debt and hard work, you can find out the answers in a mere minute. Although both the doctor and lawyer for some odd reason rolled their eyes and explained how they had to unwind much of the clients’ medical and legal newfound expertise.

This week we saw a legitimate concern discovered during the inspection process. Our own client then sent us a “purported” legal document” to transmit to the other party. Who says the kids are the only ones cheating on exams that we have to worry about?!? Chat GPT has a style of writing like that of Davis Martin on the White Sox. Davis Martin this week gave up 6 runs in the first inning to the Red Sox. The White Sox catcher, Kyle Teel, who is injured and sitting in the dugout is good with patterns. He figured out that Davis Martin was tipping his pitches by accident. Chat is the same way. Everything it writes universally sounds the same. You just know the pattern when you see it. Including the flattery!

In addition, there is the “Konerko Trio” dilemma. See, when Wikipedia was first gaining traction, someone did a thought experiment and wrote on the White Sox sluggers Wikipedia page that Paul Konerko along with brothers Trace and Haus formed the singing trio in high school. It stuck for over a decade and is still up on the web. Paul Konerko was asked about this in interviews and said something to the effect that, “he doesn’t have a good voice nor does he have 2 brothers. Must be somebody with too much time on their hands.” Huh? I wonder who that could be?

The problem with the Chat GPT correspondence to try and save legal fees and take over as legal authority was that it can give bad information. The letter that we believe Chat GPT came up with said that we were not going to show up and close. We did as instructed and forwarded the letter. The seller’s agent wrote back that they would be in breach of contract. I had our agent write to our client that they needed to get a licensed Florida real estate lawyer now, as we are not licensed, and their deposit could be in jeopardy. Furthermore, they might be opening themselves up to a specific performance case. Fortunately, the romantic fling with Chat ended there.

Chat GPT is the latest battle we Realtors (as other professions) have to face in trying to help clients from hurting themselves. Clients have always had issues in not being able to help themselves. Sometimes it’s a controlling personality part. Other times it’s a friend’s advice from afar. Or being too “hot” and not letting things simmer. Often, it’s not being able to read the situation objectively either from a skillset standpoint, non-experience, lack of perspective, or being too emotionally close to the situation.

Chat is great tool for organizing tasks, research, basic analysis, and anything a calculator or computer can do that is routine. People who are experts in their fields at prompts can get much more out of it. There is some creative work we’ve done but the expertise of the mechanic not only in their field but in prompting is vital, I think.

The problems in real estate problem solving are the never-ending variables. Think about this as a formula.

Take an A-Personality spouse + Introvert Spouse Sellers X Planner personality husband + Extorvert Passive-Aggressive spouse buyers. Mixed in are Chronic victim friend + pessimist mother-in-law advising the buyers. And a jealous neighbor whispering in the seller’s ear. In addition, market conditions for sellers when last sold were in 2005 when everything that was put on the market sold. For buyers it was 2009 when everything was sitting. Inspections were also dealing with 4 pages versus 150 pages today. Now throw in a lawyer licensed in Connecticut giving advice to someone who is really a family friend who practices patent law. The Realtor representing the Seller has only three sales that year, doesn’t know the area and is very ego driven. The buyer’s agent is not getting along with their clients and has a free spirit personality type. The inspector is a know it all with an old jalopy Rolls Royce 1974 model and hair down to the buttocks. The mortgage brokerage chosen is a large company but not local and the mortgage broker himself is hard to hear over as talks in riddles with a whispering voice. The home they are looking at needs work and has a half lake view and is a 3 bedroom + 1.5 bath. in good shape but needs a new roof in the next 5 years. There hasn’t been a good comparison in the last 6 months. Interest rates have moved up ½ a point, but the market is still strong. Not sure if the war with Iran will have an effect or not. The new Florida homestead tax bill is on the ballot in November which could result in more tax savings. What should the buyer’s strategy be?

Chat gave a long answer, but two things stood out.

1. This is not normal negotiation. You have a transaction where almost every person involved has an incentive to make the buyer either overthink the house or overpay for the wrong reason.

2. The buyer’s strategy should be calm, analytical and slightly boring.

Without Chat having boots on the ground there are too many variables to figure all of this out. But even if you did, I’d say to #1 that it is a normal negotiation. Every person involved has a personality type. Same with the house and neighborhood. Finances and hundreds of other variables and emotions come into play. What is the state of the market locally and nationwide? Seasonality. What is the motivation of buyer and seller? Need versus want? Carry cost? Do either have other choices? On the buy side, I count 151 real estate variables that come into play. The problem with Chat is it’s impossible to analyze all the variables and put them into Chat. And if you did it would most likely go on a shroom hallucination.

And as for #2, the buyer should run as the strategy as a 1 ½ bath home will sit on the market forever for resale. Instead, chat would have them still there chit-chatting in negotiations.

But if you do buy this house and you end up with migraines or heart palpitations, I recommend seeing either of the Garber doctors to cure the ailment.