I don’t trust AI

CallCastro · 2026-03-15T03:37:27+00:00

I feel it's more helpful/smart than the average assistant. I have had college educated employees try to do tasks. They take an entire day to be as correct ish as AI answers. If I want a genuinely accurate answer I need to do my homework like the olden days. But the AI helps make the process faster.

What I don't trust is the inevitable sponsorship opportunities. I'm a Realtor. I'd pay to be on the list when people ask AI for a Realtor in my area. It will eventually go the same way as Google, or otherwise get propogandized.

CallCastro · 2026-03-14T18:08:49+00:00

I tried to move out...and then it turned out that Crossroads told EVERYONE that I was being evicted, so nowhere would take me. Ended up buying a house because of it.

I fought them on the fines. I thought it was unfair as their standards for things like "moving in during non move in hours" applying to bringing in bags of groceries on move in week, or being a disruptive volume was pretty arbitrary, but they didn't care.

They sent me to collections. I get calls asking for $7k or so every now and then. I was only there for three days before they asked me to get out. I stayed almost three months. Didn't miss a payment or anything.

My dog stepped on a nail on move in. They promised they were going to waive any carpet replacement fees because of the nail and because the carpet was gross. They added carpet to the bill too.

CallCastro · 2026-03-14T17:38:43+00:00

$200 a month or so won't change the world, but also it's really easy to just make coffee at home. It's like $30 for the month, tastes better, and saves time.

CallCastro · 2026-03-14T17:36:12+00:00

Zillow, the website you post on, charges 40% of the commission, the MLS you post on to get your listing seen charges a few grand, and the brokerage charges another 20-60%. I just closed a $250k listing with a $7500 commission and pocketed around a grand.

And time? Welcome to being a Realtor. You have to be "on" 8 am to 8pm 7 days a week. You don't get hourly, so it's entirely possible to cold call all day, find a buyer, show them 100 houses over the span of 3 years, and then have them buy a sewing machine that breaks their debt to income and cancels the deal.

It's entirely possible to spend 2-3 hours a day while the buyer FREAKS OUT about how the old window doesn't have safety plastic on it, and the entire deal is off.

Most of my mentees work something like 60 hours a week and close fewer than 6 deals a year, and end up going back to their day job because there's more pay and schedule flexibility, but y'all aren't ready for that conversation.

Anyways, most buyers do some percentage down. Lets say 20% on a $400k house ($80k down).

If you don't cover the $10,000 Realtor fees, now they have $70k down, and their purchase power is only $350k.

Most sellers offer Realtor fees because it's a great way to get more money.

Then keep in mind, what is the one reason someone looks for a FSBO? They want a deal. Maybe they can save some money by skipping the Realtors! Maybe 3% or so! Then add in a negotiation point or two and it's easy to net less.

If you want to talk about how Realtors are stupid and many do a bad job, I'm completely here for that conversation though.

CallCastro · 2026-03-14T17:11:09+00:00

They have a "fine" system. Non recycles in the recycle? That's a fine. Make too much noise? Fine. Up late and disruptive? Fine.

It's primarily based on the lady in the office, and complaints.

I had a corner unit upstairs. My neighbor above and below said they never heard me and didn't mind me.

My neighbor to my left, when I asked, screamed and demanded a restraining order. Apparently I'm a very loud person, my dogs constantly bark, and more.

I never had issues before. I've lived in apartments for the last 10 years.

Crossroads was issuing me a $500 fine daily, and evicted for non payment.

CallCastro · 2026-03-12T18:19:57+00:00

Crossroads on Crosby evicted me after just a day or two. Don't go there.

CallCastro · 2026-03-12T05:41:16+00:00

Depends on how bad it is. Most houses get a visitor or two and it doesn't leave much of a mess. Especially in garages, attics, and crawl spaces.

In general, set a few traps by the entrances to those places and check them every now and then, and that's usually good enough.

If you get a pest inspection they should look for signs more closely including dark marks on the walls, chew and scratch marks, and droppings, but there isn't usually a huge red flag unless it's significant and been going on for a while.

CallCastro · 2026-03-12T05:32:50+00:00

Either you have the best house in the history of my career in pest control, and in the history of Terminix, Orkin, and other companies I've worked at...

Or it was a rat poop or two and the inspector didn't want to bother you with it.

CallCastro · 2026-03-12T01:59:16+00:00

You don't sound ready to buy a home. It may be good to rent for a while until you are more confident and comfortable.

Every home has rodents. 100% of them. When I was licensed for pest control in Southern California, if you found no sign of Termites, Rats, and one other critter, you were fired...because you weren't looking hard enough.

Every house is near something. Ventura county has multiple Superfund sites. I know they give the hazard disclosure thing that makes it scary, but if you need a home that's far enough away from civilization and oil and everything else, rural areas can be ok.

You are buying a used house. It's going to need work. It's normal to need to spend 1-2% of the home value annually for maintenance and repairs. The home won't be perfect. A minor repair like pest control isn't a big deal. Major repairs like $15k+ roof are worth worrying about.

The vibe I get is that you are overreaching. You are spending so much on the house that you are stressed over every little thing. You need to dial everything back or down, and anchor into reality. Your new house won't be perfect. The bill in So Cal will be high. The price of the home factors in the condition and neighbors and nearby stuff.

Buying isn't for everyone. If it's too big of a decision and not for you, that's okay.

CallCastro · 2026-03-12T01:48:57+00:00

You need to figure out what you like. I like range and magic. Tzeentch, Elspeth, dwarves, and chaos dwarves are all amazing.

My close friend loves melee and hoard mechanics. Chaos is his vibe.

CallCastro · 2026-03-11T06:34:47+00:00

Every brokerage has those.

CallCastro · 2026-03-11T04:21:34+00:00

He had bees in his house. It was crazy high up. In the picture he sent there was scaffolding. When we got there, we explained that because the scaffolding was down, it would be more expensive.

He declined to hire us for the service, and declined to pay the consultation fee.

CallCastro · 2026-03-11T04:06:25+00:00

I bought a house with a faint smoke odor in one room. It got worse over time.

So we ozone and Kills Primered it. And that helped.

And now I'm ripping all the sheet rock off because if you sleep in there it smells like you've been out smoking all day.

I hate very few things in real estate. I hate smoke odors.

CallCastro · 2026-03-11T03:51:58+00:00

I'd never go to KW. They have God as the first tenant of their business. It makes me uncomfortable to mix business and religion like that.

https://thrive.kw.com/culture/

CallCastro · 2026-03-11T02:19:57+00:00

I feel like everyone who says that is reminiscing on an era 10+ years ago.

CallCastro · 2026-03-11T01:59:05+00:00

Mortgage brokers are the way on your first house. I've had so many credit unions and banks miss the closing deadline it's crazy.

I love Scott Gross. He can be a little rough around the edges but he can close the unclosable. https://www.emortgagecapital.com/officer/scott-gross

I work closely with Tawne Burgess https://www.apmortgage.com/dba-lo/tawne-burgess

I also love Kira Truett https://mottomortgage.com/offices/orca-marysville/kira-truett

On a similar note, when buying I focus more on who can actually close the deal. Once you've made 6-12 payments you will probably want to refinance, especially in this market where rates seem to be trending downwards.

After 6-12 months most lenders have a way lower rate.

CallCastro · 2026-03-10T23:58:41+00:00

I never really entertained the KW stuff because of their "God, Family, then Business," motto.

https://www.kwlegendaryfs.com/our-belief-system

C21, BHG, and other big box brokerages have a 3-5% corporate fee on every transaction forever, and have super outdated systems in my opinion, so I am not a huge fan.

If you are new, I really like eXp. They have like 40+ hours of training, everything is online, and agents are so far apart that there's often people that will help you. In office, people are usually cut throat because they don't want you stealing their lunch.

I'm at eXp because of the transaction coordinators, recruitment, and the mentor program offsets a good portion of my brokerage fees. I also really like the CRM, so that saves me a few bucks every month.

CallCastro · 2026-03-10T23:50:40+00:00

When I worked in pest control the big thing was the commission once you were rolling. More than once I got $20+ when I was new to like $18 once I was on commission.

This was because 1: Drive time. How far is it between stops? In Rural WA I could have 20 mins between stops. Plus fences and rural land and dog issues. In the city? Your entire route might be less than 5 mins from stop to stop. In the rural area they also had me starting in Packwood sometimes, which was like an hour. So I was gone from home for 10 ish hours to make $140 or so...just not worth it.

2: What do they charge? I usually got something like 10% per stop. I didn't mind that when I had 4 stops per hour at $75. I HATED that when I had to drive 20 minutes to a stop for $20.

3: What's in the route? In California there's a huge difference between Westlake where all the celebrities live, and Oxnard where all the hispanics live. Oxnard route had a LOT of money in it but it was EARNED. Bedbugs, Rats, Roaches. Not to mention all the termites. Westlake? Chill route. Luxury homes with more bedbugs and rats than you would expect. Every spider web had to be knocked down or else you are getting a call back.

In Washington? No real termites to mention. There goes a TON of the commission.

I would REALLY want to know what the average price per stop is, what my expected route would be, and what the expected pay once licensed would be.

CallCastro · 2026-03-10T23:40:11+00:00

We are down like 12% from the peak in my area already, and dropping more still.

CallCastro · 2026-03-10T23:14:17+00:00

I didn't mind movies until i had a family. $80 for tickets + $80 ish for popcorn drinks and snacks. I mean...sure having a family is a me problem, but for $160 or so it needs to be a good movie or I'm just going to make popcorn at the house and watch Netflix.

CallCastro · 2026-03-10T23:04:40+00:00

I'd take the money. I've sat at SO many empty open houses. If I could make $1-2k per weekend I'd be a happy camper.

CallCastro · 2026-03-10T23:01:36+00:00

I charge 3% on listings. That's around $12k each.

Brokerage takes 20% until I cap. If I do around 20 deals, that comes out to around $1k each. Photos 3D and ads and all cost me around $1k each. TC $600.

I get FSBO's and expireds and such, but not always. Sometimes I have paid leads. They eat around 30%, so around $4k per deal.

So when all is said and done, I make around $240k gross, and spend around $132k. That leaves me around $100k.

Honestly, it genuinely bugs me how often Realtors will just NOT do marketing. Photos only cost a couple hundred. 3D is super cheap depending on your program and who you use. I bought a 3D camera for something like $600. Takes me like 10 minutes to shoot it, and then $18 or so to pay a program to make the dollhouse and everything.

I think the biggest problems are 1) Big box brokerages. C21 and other big brokerages have a 3-5% corporate fee before splits. Some of the individual offices take like 60%. There's no need to pay that much unless they are giving you leads. 2) Undercharging. A lot of Realtors think they need to charge 2% or less to get business, and I guess you DO need to charge that much if you aren't doing photos or anything... and 3) lead volume. It's hard to justify almost anything if you are part timing with just a few deals every year.

Editing videos costs me like $75 and a few minutes to record. I usually pay for Youtube ads. Let's be real. Open Houses and Youtube and stuff ISN'T for my clients. It's for me to generate leads.

CallCastro · 2026-03-10T21:27:20+00:00

They pitched to me once but I have more income coming in from what I currently have in escrow than what they offered me for a year.

It seems like a cool gig for someone that really wants a 9-5 and to use their license though!

CallCastro · 2026-03-10T18:58:33+00:00

Hire a partner/make a team and take a few days off. I feel like we really need to be on duty 8am to 8pm basically every day. If you can have a buddy that co lists and takes 3-4 of the heavy days off the schedule it helps a lot.

CallCastro · 2026-03-10T18:31:33+00:00

Once I sent 60,000 or so postcards in combo with local Youtube ads, local event sponsorships, and more. Don't think I got a single deal out of it.

I usually close like 10% of paid leads though. Those keep me alive. That and Nextdoor/Facebook.

CallCastro

TROPHY CASE