Karen Heath is a Realtor in Saratoga Springs, New York. She was meeting new clients to show them a house and watched, in horror, as they were struck by a car while crossing the street. Karen sprung into action, calling 911. When you are a realtor you tend to power through your injuries to show your clients that next house. I share a few crazy injury stories that will have you laughing. On a serious note, it's important to make sure that you have adequate homeowners insurance to cover you if someone is injured on your property. Real Estate Is Crazy.
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This Podcast is a way to share your experiences. BE A GUEST OR SHARE A STORY HERE: Realestateiscrazy@gmail.com
We appreciate you for coming by, and tune in next week for more real estate is crazy. * Hosted by: David Haghighi & Christina Smith * Produced by: Brandon Pease, Linkedpreview.com (Real Estate centric multimedia company & Veteran Owned) * A special thank you to Karen Pagano Heath, Realtor in Saratoga Springs New York. Follow Karen on Instagram @karenheath10 Direct : 518-424-2087 karenheath@howardhanna.com
Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/kevin-macleod/monkeys-spinning-monkeys License code: YVBOHMDRTKWQGCIN
Karen Heath is a Realtor in Saratoga Springs, New York. She was meeting new clients to show them a house and watched, in horror, as they were struck by a car while crossing the street. Karen sprung into action, calling 911. When you are a realtor you tend to power through your injuries to show your clients that next house. I share a few crazy injury stories that will have you laughing. On a serious note, it's important to make sure that you have adequate homeowners insurance to cover you if someone is injured on your property. Real Estate Is Crazy.
FOLLOW US AROUND Tik Tok : @realestateiscrazy Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/realestateiscrazy/ Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/RealEstateisCrazy Twitter : https://twitter.com/CrazyRealEstate Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS1CNRcnWd-KG9BCOV9hdjQ
This Podcast is a way to share your experiences. BE A GUEST OR SHARE A STORY HERE: Realestateiscrazy@gmail.com
We appreciate you for coming by, and tune in next week for more real estate is crazy. * Hosted by: David Haghighi & Christina Smith * Produced by: Brandon Pease, Linkedpreview.com (Real Estate centric multimedia company & Veteran Owned) * A special thank you to Karen Pagano Heath, Realtor in Saratoga Springs New York. Follow Karen on Instagram @karenheath10 Direct : 518-424-2087 karenheath@howardhanna.com
Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/kevin-macleod/monkeys-spinning-monkeys License code: YVBOHMDRTKWQGCIN
Christina Smith:
Hey guys. Welcome back to real estate is crazy. I can't believe it. We're on episode four, David
David Haghighi:
four episodes feels like one. Okay. Maybe not, but
Christina Smith:
close. Well, I'm really excited. I have a little rain. For this week,
David Haghighi:
when we start with your rants, it actually makes me like happy. I don't know. Yeah.
Christina Smith:
Well, I think it's because it's the stuff that every realtor thinks about. Nobody wants to say. So I'm just going to freaking say it. I'm just going to say it. So this is the tip. This is the tip, please, please. For the love of goodness, grace, take down your naughty photo. When you're listing your house for sale, I don't want to walk through your master bedroom and see your naughty
David Haghighi:
bitch. The big question is, was it the agent or was it the seller and I'm not talking about in the photos. I'm talking about the one who put
Christina Smith:
them up on the MLS. So I've been on both sides. I've been on the listing side. It's definitely the first thing I look for when I'm going through. Sometimes, you know, the life has like a little boudoir photo of her and like posing, you know, And I'm like, Hey, we gotta take that down. But in this situation it was actually at an open house. Oh. And so everybody walking through, as they were passing, the master bathroom saw her and her naughties, knotty, naughties.
David Haghighi:
I mean, obviously she didn't have a problem with that. I think if, if a woman. Didn't want all of the general public to see her nitty-gritty details, she would take it down.
Christina Smith:
I'm going to blame the listing agent. I'm going to blame them for not saying like, Hey, you should probably take it.
David Haghighi:
Yeah. Um, so there's, what's in the best interest of the home sale. And then there's, what's in the best interest of the dignity of the woman, which, I mean, I keep thinking about this company.
Christina Smith:
She liked great. That's another
David Haghighi:
reason, right? If she was, if she was not. Uh, where she wanted it to be, to have a picture on her nightstand then, you know, but whatever
Christina Smith:
each their own, maybe I think as
David Haghighi:
an agent, what we need to do is visualize what the potential buyers going to look like and kind of sculpt around that. I can think of some scenarios where, uh, you know, a risk. Photo would have done a
Christina Smith:
house, a favor, like someone who owns a, like a, uh, uh, a
David Haghighi:
porn. No, no, just in the way at UCSE everything's a one bedroom. They're all single people. They love that stuff.
Christina Smith:
You know what I mean? It's like free advertisement. Like I'm single your single. Well,
David Haghighi:
listen, I know that the real estate industry works a little backwards from the female perspective. And sometimes you guys have clients who want more than just a business relationship with you. So that's a different podcast, you know, leveraging this stuff. Tactically is the agent's job. Now I don't think the agent left that photo there intentionally. Maybe they didn't, maybe she
Christina Smith:
did. I don't know. Well, today we actually are sharing a story that I did with, um, an amazing agent out of Saratoga Springs, New York, Florida, New York, New York, and her name is Karen Heath. And she was gracious enough to do an interview with me and share. Eight injury story. So David knows I have a lot of injuries. Anyone who's worked with me knows at one point in time, you're going to see me get injured when I'm showing you a house it's just going to happen.
David Haghighi:
But have you ever dealt with the real ambulance chasers? They're real injury attorneys. Yeah, there's some, it's a whole world out there.
Christina Smith:
Yeah. I mean now I'm thinking sh what should I have called an injury attorney, but we can definitely talk about that in, in this situation. There's this happened to her clients and the brand new clients. So we're going to go ahead. We're going to upload the story, and then we're going to touch back with you afterwards. Here we go. Three, two.
Karen Heath:
So I had these brand new clients. I actually hadn't met them before. We'd just spoken on the phone several times and we are meeting for the first time at the property. So they were looking at a home in the downtown Albany area. And I had got there first, I went to, I was on the porch of the house and it went to the door to unlock it. And I see these two people and they waved to me because they thought, oh, that must be hard. So they walk, they're walking across the street after parking their car to the house. As they're walking across the street, mind you in a crosswalk, there was a car that had a stop sign that didn't stop. And he was turning. And when he turned right into my buyers basically hit them. The young girl flew up onto the hood of the car and bounced off and hit her head pretty hard. Yeah. Oh, the guy stopped the, I called 9 1 1. I went over to them and she got up pretty quick. So all of us thought that she was hurt, but not that serious. And the mom wasn't. Cop and an ex military. So she was, oh,
Christina Smith:
she was realistic to say, yeah. Yes. As most mothers would, if someone hit your child with the car, I would lose my mind.
Karen Heath:
And she had a Walker. She had just had some hip stuff, done, some hip surgery or something, but he hit the Walker and it knocked, it broke the Walker, knocked it out of her hands. Wow. And when I called 9 1 1 in that area, not only. Police and come, but the fire department and the ambulance, they all came together. They asked her if she wanted to go to the hospital, they're trying to do tests on her to see if she was okay. And mom insisted that she go to the hospital. She was like, no, she literally hopped up on the stretcher herself. And the driver was thinking that these girls are faking. She's not seriously injured. Why am I going to the hospital? He's throwing a fit over that. It turned out. She ended up with a very severe concussion. Once she got into the ambulance, she was like throwing up the whole way. She stayed in the hospital for about two days. That's so scary. Yeah, it was pretty scary.
Christina Smith:
Anything having to do with the head entry you have to take seriously. So it's good that you guys were at the Chico to the hospital. You hear people die abouts, you know,
Karen Heath:
with stuff. Absolutely. And she's, she's fine right now. So it's easier to talk about knowing that she's doing well.
Christina Smith:
Yeah, well, you were obviously the common the storm because when something like that happens, instinctual reaction is to just completely lose control and to get emotion. If someone's looking to buy in the Saratoga Springs area, how can they get ahold of
Karen Heath:
they can call me at (518) 424-2087. They can email me@karenheathathowardhanna.com or my Facebook I'm just under Karen Pagano, Heath. And my Instagram is K Heath 10. So yeah, I'm out there. They can Google my name and it comes up as well. Awesome.
Christina Smith:
Great. Thank you so much for sharing and I hope to talk to you soon. Thank you very
Karen Heath:
much.
David Haghighi:
We can, that, that was a, that was a little much for MLS. Uh, I, I have not really been injured before on the job you hate.
Christina Smith:
I, I definitely have. And, and like, Karen, this was the first time she was meeting these. And, and this happened, obviously she was able to step in. She did, you know, sh T by our house. She did find that the house after they recovered. Oh. So they didn't lose the
David Haghighi:
client after that, that would have been witnessed them being hit by a car. And then
Christina Smith:
she's still, I think, uh, toxin to the stay and stays in touch. And so as she should, as she should. So my injury story happened to me. And it was again like Karen. It was the first time I was meeting these clients out of home. And I don't know if you've ever seen those houses in palai off of powers road. They have the really low hanging, um, eaves. I was walking up to open the lockbox and I was looking on my cell phone, dreaded side yard, and I rammed into the corner of the Eve. Oh, On my head and I'm like hoping they didn't see it. And at this point, I just think I have probably a bump on my head. No, because as soon as I bend over to like, get the key out of the lock box, I feel warm liquid, like coming down my head and they had their four year old daughter with them and I'm like, I'm going to look. Horrifying to this child. So luckily I had a red sweater, so I took the red sweater off as if like I was trying to make it better. It wasn't better. I wrapped it around my head, like a turban walked up to them like, Hey, I'm not a weirdo.
David Haghighi:
I'm a little different from me being middle Eastern. I think that we wrap around our heads. It's uh, you know, it's like, uh, A Rite of passage.
Christina Smith:
I was so mortified. They were like, oh my God, are you okay? I'm like, yeah, I'm fine. I'm going to open the door. You guys walked through. I'm just going to go to the bathroom and pulling myself up. You're trying not to let them know that you are well sort of, because you know, you always want to just like power through. So I went to the bathroom, I took my sweater off my head and blood's just gushing down there. And I'm like, oh my God. Now there's blood all over the countertop. It just kept getting worse and worse. There's blood everywhere. I'm trying to clean it up. Luckily there were people towels underneath the same artery or something. Well, so I S I stopped at enough, you know, head injuries are the worst, you know, so I stopped it enough where. I could show them the second house on the list.
David Haghighi:
It's going to be done. Literally, if we don't go see it now it's going to be off market. That's
Christina Smith:
what I always had now. So I did, I stopped the blood. That I could show them the next house and then go home and tend to my wounds and then go to urgent care and get stitches in my head.
David Haghighi:
The most women listening are like Christina urgent care was the first stop on your list. They're a real
Christina Smith:
estate agent. It's. Um, the list,
David Haghighi:
you know, I get it, I get it. It's a, it's a crazy, crazy world out there and we have to be available on standby sometimes. However, Family first. I think we both put
Christina Smith:
family first. Yeah. And, but, you know, our clients become like family. So I ultimately did find them home and they still message me. And it's one of these stories that we have and they tell them, oh, you know, our realtor
David Haghighi:
smashed her head. Yeah. Yeah. We got out with a house and all the blood we needed to
Christina Smith:
survive, but you do have to be that. Yes. In those moments you can't freak out. I mean, I think that's something about our job that people don't realize is we don't get the luxury of freaking out and running down the street and crying like a crazy person know.
David Haghighi:
I think it's interesting because if we divide the industry up into the buyer representation and the seller representation, seller representation never really gets into a position like that. You know, they, they really do control the situation a little bit more. Then to have to do something on the fly. Yeah. Uh, and I think that's part of the reason why everybody wants to be in that side of the business. But you know, that side of the business is also unfulfilling. I find it unfulfilling.
Christina Smith:
I love working with buyers and, and like I said, I have this weird reputation for getting injured. I mean, it's not that it's not the last, it won't be the last time. It's not the first time I did show a house one time. I was so lucky that it happened to be one where he wanted to bring his entire family. And then as I was crossing the street
David Haghighi:
cars with the family, that's how, you know, when it's, when it's a two or three car caravan, you know, you've got the whole thing.
Christina Smith:
Well, it was a busy road and there was a variation in the road that I didn't see. I think they were redoing the streets. So as I was crossing, I literally like popped my ankle. And in that moment, I just laid in the middle of the street, like a dead seal. Like I was just like, like literally just laying there, like, do I cry? Do I get up? Can I get up? They had to run over and like, lift me. It was bad. And there's cars come in and they had to stop. Cause I just was like, Forget it I'm just going to lay here.
David Haghighi:
I love it.
Christina Smith:
I helped, I actually then showed them another house. My ankle swelled up pretty big, but I cried on the way to the second house, pulled myself together for the next showing and then went home and wrote an offer. So it's like, my mom taught me my toughness. I'm going to give my kudos to my mom, Paula Cod. Thank you so much for making. Uh, indestructable, I'm still here.
David Haghighi:
So no shame and no doubts that women are tougher than men. I agree when it comes to this kind of stuff, when it comes to, well, actually, no, I will say men sometimes appear tougher, but very rarely if ever, are they actually tougher? It's just posturing.
Christina Smith:
I think what women do, especially if we've had kids, is we. At least for me, every injury that I have. Goes up against like, is this worse than giving birth? Because if it's not internal comparison to suck it up and just deal with it.
David Haghighi:
Well, I'll tell you, I think that injuring yourself anywhere sucks, injuring yourself on the job. Typically you'd probably get like a worker's comp claim or something, right? Not us. The real estate industry is just a little too sophisticated for that. So we simply fly by night and handle all of our own. Without
Christina Smith:
litigation. Yeah. But it also, you know, if you think about that, I had been injured at a property. If I had wanted to, I could have filed a claim against the homeowner, which means that homeowners need to be extremely cautious about making sure they have the right insurance in place. If someone gets injured on their property, especially when they're selling and they have random people coming through their agents, anything could happen. Well,
David Haghighi:
I also really promote. Controlling access and tours to your home as much as possible. And there's a reason it's not really so much to protect personal property or even, you know, insurance risk for me, it's really just to keep exclusivity. You know, I want it to feel like those buyers are privileged to be there, you know? And it's tough because if you make them wait three or four days to see the house, you can lose that exciting. And if you, you know, go over that period of time, then there could be a loss of traffic altogether. So it's a very time sensitive thing, but I think controlling access, controlling insurance, controlling risks, and liabilities. It's sad. How little is done as an industry along these lines. It's like the wild west
Christina Smith:
out there it is. Yeah. Anything could happen. Well at Christina could get injured anywhere
David Haghighi:
at the time. I tell my clients, my insurance doesn't cover that. I literally say that to them. And I'm totally
Christina Smith:
joking. Well, think about the insurance. You have to have to have clients right in your car. I mean, most, most realtors don't think about that. You need to call your insurance company and have extra coverage added to your policy. If you're going to have
David Haghighi:
the most sophisticated brokers require it. The whole real estate industry is kind of suffering along that and right now. So I think there's a lot of real estate agents driving around with insufficient insurance. Yes. Yes. Uh, but you know, what do you have to protect? Hey, let's go back to talking about trusts. Like what do you have to protect? There's so many different dynamics when somebody makes a decision. Whether or not to put a client in their car, like for you, if you're really, really doing your best to represent your people and you know, they're tired of driving and you got to get them to one last house, you're going to do it, but you're not going to think about the insurance in the moment you're going
Christina Smith:
to have. I mean, I carry good life insurance for this reason because
David Haghighi:
you've been close to death many times.
Christina Smith:
Yeah. Cause you know me, like if I want to know what the condition of the roof is, I'm going to climb up on the retaining wall. I've fallen off of retaining walls in front of clients. I have, I, I, you know, I
David Haghighi:
will not be telling our broker of record any of these risky stories
Christina Smith:
I once was in a garage and you know how you can get effervescence out here. It's concrete. The minerals come up through the concrete Hi, David, this is why, because I call it effervescence
David Haghighi:
stuff that comes out of a drain. Really refreshing
Christina Smith:
effervescent and fluorescents.
David Haghighi:
So basically it's
Christina Smith:
like minerals coming. Yeah. And it creates like this powder. So some places have it worse than others. In this case, it was very prominent. It actually created kind of like a foam dust pile. And I literally, it was on the corner of the garage and I went to bend down to look at it and didn't see, there was a shelf right there and my client. Look at the same touch. I know it's terrible. So I literally just went clunk down right on a shelf. And my client looked over at me, mortified. She's like, oh my God, are you okay? And I'm like on that one, I did not as a good day. It's
David Haghighi:
always a good day. It always just complicates things. It's messy. You know, I've been watching too many
Christina Smith:
friends shows as long as they don't drop that. I'm up
David Haghighi:
in my office on the background while I'm working is for forensic 48 hours or 72 hours. I know because it's interesting enough, but not too interesting to where I get distracted from what I'm doing. I find that to be a really necessary ingredient,
Christina Smith:
background noise, like in the background. That's why it's because we have a lot of kids, real Housewives of whatever, go talk to somebody
David Haghighi:
with no children and they love their silence. They enjoy their silence all the time. Like I can't do something. You
Christina Smith:
can't use, I can do silence, but I do silence in my car with like a slice of pizza from Costco. I can't even do it in my car and chips and hummus. My husband pulls up. Okay. She's like, what are you doing? I'm like, don't bother me. I mean, chips and numbers
David Haghighi:
in the car. No, they make those things for your steering wheel to turn it into a table. Yeah. And you know, what's funny is if you're in a real estate community, you get promoted like on your banner ads, like. Somehow because I'm in a real estate conversation at least once a day, they find me for these things and they're like, you want to eat lunch in your car? And my response is no, I don't, you know, I would love to have enough time
Christina Smith:
to send that information to me.
David Haghighi:
I will send it to you. The truth is my goal is to have enough time in my schedule to be able to sit in and eat lunch regularly
Christina Smith:
and not worry about the bill.
David Haghighi:
You know, the truth is. Real estate is crazy. Real estate is crazy. We've been living this life for a long time, so we're numb to it, but I think we're going to be sharing some pretty interesting stories. I'd like to announce that next week we're going to have Bruce Levine, my favorite independent broker here in San Diego. He's going to be telling us some funny stories and we look forward to seeing you all again,
Christina Smith:
then yeah. Check us out, follow us. And we will see you next week over and out. Bye.