I have been racking my brain trying to see the macroeconomic effect that the COVID-19 pandemic will have in the United States but also on a global level. I must admit when the coronavirus hysteria began I thought it was an overreaction to get the stock market to tank so the elites and the ultra-wealthy could take profits and exit from an overpriced stock market. However, as with anything I do not understand I began researching COVID-19. The more research I did, the more concerned I became and the more I realized how financially and emotionally devastating this pandemic will be. Even if you believe it to be a hoax, it will still be devastating for you as well. As of Wednesday, April 1st I believe we are just entering the eye of the health crisis and things will get tragically worse from here on out for weeks before we flatten the curve. But even after we flatten the curve and the number of cases and deaths start to go down the next crisis will have taken root and will begin to rear its ugly head. This will be a financial crisis. Unlike the 2008 financial crisis, this one will be much worse and will last much longer. The 2 trillion dollars in stimulus money the fed is currently printing is merely a drop in the bucket compared to the financial damage our great country is going to be facing in the months to come. If you look at the big picture and not listen to people's well-wishing speeches you should be able to easily see that our economy will not open up like a flood gate, it will open up like turning on the faucet to a 50-foot water hose after a Michigan winter. There may be a trickle of business whenever we get the “all clear” but many of us will still be cautiously frozen and continue to self-quarantine long after any official “it's safe to congregate again message. It will be months before businesses see any significant foot traffic and until then many employees will still be laid off and out of work. Sadly many businesses will not survive the pandemic. The economy will be strangled by the financial crisis pandemic that will hit on a global scale. The U.S economy is not the only economy affected by COVID-19, economies around the world have come to a halt and they will not start up nearly as fast as the capitalistic society of America. A side dish to the financial crisis will be a Real Estate crisis. Due to the number of those who are and will be unemployed, and the number of small businesses that do not survive there will be millions of unpaid residential and commercial mortgages alike that will go unpaid. This is surely going to lead us to a Real estate crisis but unlike 2008 this will be on a global scale. Remember, everything the United States is going through right now, the rest of the world is too. There will be no bouncing back from these series of crisis’. The events we are currently experience and the events that are still to come will change our lives forever. For some this will birth opportunity, for some, it will bring their demise. The last crisis but certainly not least is the emotional crisis. This is the one I struggle with the most. As a loving son who is accustomed to having lunch with his Mother which happens to be a resident in an assisted living facility, in the memory care unit it's heartbreaking daily to not be able to see her. I can't help but wonder if she will still recognize me when I am finally able to see her again. I want to call and check on her regularly but I know how busy the nurses and CNA’s are on regular days, so I can't even imagine how busy they all must be now. When I do call my anxiety level is so high I shake because I am terrified to hear about someone being sick. The thought alone leads me down a path of thinking about families that are saying goodbye to loved ones right now and how painful it must be to not be in the room with their loved one during their last minutes before their soul departs their body. It brings tears to m eyes to think of my mother in a room without any of the people she loves by her side and for the thousands of people who have already experienced this. It breaks my heart to think of the family members who will not be able to provide their loved ones with a proper homegoing celebration and for family members who will not get to see their loved one one last time. These unfortunate events will surely lead to bouts of depression and mental illnesses for many of us and lead to what I believe will be an emotional crisis in America. With all of the craziness that has gone on in the last 4 years, it could be said that we were already facing an emotional crisis. However, the series of events that are sure to play out over the next few years will most definitely push many of us to the brink of something terrible.

Whether you believe it to be a hoax or an overreaction, either way, your life, and mine will be affected physically, emotionally, mentally and financially by COVID-19 for the unforeseeable future.

In 2014 my parents moved into an assisted living facility and my brother has been living in our family home for the last couple years. Him and his wife recently decided to purchase the home from our mothers estate. My sister is the conservator for my mother and we are all for our brother purchasing the house. I obtained my Real Estate license in 2006 and was a Realtor for several years before leaving the brokerage and striking out on my own to wholesale Real Estate. I know the business well and have always been someone who looks out for my clients best interest even if it means I take a stove and refrigerator instead of getting paid in cash. 

This deal between my mothers estate and my brother is a very simple deal and does not require a Realtor to make it happen. Unfortunately my brother and sister did not seek my advice and hired a Realtor to write up the purchase agreement. This is perfectly fine if the Realtor was not being greedy and looking to take advantage of my siblings lack of knowledge. To make things more complicated their Realtor was new to the business and was being "mentored" by a Realtor who claims to have been in the business for over 20 years.  What the "mentor" should have said to his young padawan is "it would be in the clients best interest if you act as a transaction coordinator and charge the clients $1000 to do so". For a Realtor to justify a commission they have to facilitate the sale by bringing the buyer and seller together. In our case the buyer (my brother and his wife) and the seller (our mothers estate) were already in agreement and all that was left to do was write the purchase agreement, which is what a transaction coordinator does. However, the Realtor with 20+ years of experience suggested to his mentee that he take on a dual agent role and charge the maximum commission of 7%. 

The house appraised for 175K, the purchase price was 157K and my mothers estate would net 120K...WTH??? There were a whole lot of questions that were not asked by the mortgage lender and the newbie Realtor. My sister as conservator has a fiduciary obligation to my mothers estate which means everything has to be done in my mothers best interest. The mortgage lender should have recognized that netting my mother 120K for a 175K home was not in her best interest. What really lit my fire was the Realtors charging my mother/brother (depending how you look at it) $11,000 for simply helping them fill out a purchase agreement. There are two way this deal should have been done. One is for the Realtor to act as the transaction coordinator and charge $1,000-$2,000 max for doing so. The other was for the buyers to have the Title Company who is going to close the sale to draw up the paperwork and then have an Estate Attorney review the documents to ensure the deal complies with the orders of the probate court which could be done for less than $1,000.

When I confronted the Realtors about this it became clear that the newbie Realtor had no idea what he was doing was unethical and unjustified. Now the 20+ year Realtor knew exactly what he was doing. To justify this outlandish deal he told me that the house was a FSBO (for sale by owner) and therefore they could charge a commission, the maximum commission at that. The house was never put up for sale, the house was never marketed, the house was never shown and there was only one interested buyer, my brother, so how in the world do you consider that a FSBO? As I explained my position he summed it up for me by saying "its legal and there's this thin grey line", that's his excuse for attempting to "hit a lick" at the expense of my mother and brother. 

Needless to say the Judge did not approve the sale, which of coarse is all my fault for making a fuss about the commission (no good deed goes unpunished). I said all of that to say this, make sure to get a second even third opinion when you are making any major purchase. I believe most Realtors would have written this deal the right way, however there are scrupulous Agents out there who see opportunity to take advantage of peoples lack of knowledge. Just because someone talks a good game doesn't mean that they play fair. There are unprofessional professionals in every industry, whether it be Real Estate, Financial services even the medical field that is why doing your due diligence before hiring someone to assist you with a life transition is extremely important and can be the difference between a complicated process and a simple one.