Pod Insights The Clark Howard Podcast 05.27.26 Spotlight On Home Sellers / Paper Chase Account Security About this episode Today - For home sellers, making sure your house is ready and appealing to buyers can mean you have to have a tough skin, but it can pay off. If you want your home to stand out in today's market, you have to nail the first impression. Clark breaks down how to stop turning buyers off and start getting offers. Also, Clark shares a terrifying cautionary tale that will make you think twice about choosing "paperless" billing. A systems glitch at Fidelity completely wiped out a Colorado woman's life savings, leaving her account balance at zero with no electronic record that she ever even existed. It took months of stressful battles with a flippant customer service department to restore her decades of hard work. There are currently forces at work that could leave you entirely responsible for proving your own net worth. While Clark isn't telling you to stuff cash under your mattress, he is sounding an urgent warning. Plus, Lane (Clark’s wife!) shares your #AskClark questions and Clark gives his take. All this and more on the May 27, 2026, episode of The Clark Howard Show. Submit your questions: Ask Clark Word To Home Sellers: Segment 1 Ask Clark: Segment 2 Money Fails & Paper Trails: Segment 3 Ask Clark: Segment 4 Mentioned on the show: These Are the 2 Biggest Hidden Expenses When Selling a Home How To Buy a House in 9 Steps - Clark Howard NYTimes: Her Life Savings Mysteriously Disappeared After a Systems Glitch Why You Need Paper Evidence of Your Financial Accounts Should You File for Bankruptcy? - Clark Howard 6 Things To Know Before Contacting the National Foundation for Credit Counseling Clark.com resources: Episode transcripts Community. Clark.com / Ask Clark Clark.com daily money newsletter Consumer Action Center Free Helpline: 636-492-5275 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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1:20 Speaker 02 It's my pleasure to welcome you here to the Clark Howard Show. You know, our mission is to serve you with advice and information that empowers you to make better financial decisions in your life. Today, we're going to talk about something really important because a lot of homeowners got kind of lazy getting their houses ready for sale over pretty much the last 12, 14 years. That doesn't work anymore. I'm going to talk about what you need to look at doing if you and a market that their equilibrium switched to buyers versus sellers, what you need to do as a seller to get your house ready. And think about this.
2:07 Speaker 02 For the last three, four years, I've talked about the importance of you keeping paper statements for brokerages and bank accounts. And if you don't get paper statements and you get email statements, why it's important that you download each month your statements. I'm going to tell you a story from customer fidelity investments that will terrify you and maybe get you doing what I've tried to get you to do for a good while. Right now, I want to talk about a house for sale. So I want you to think about this from the perspective of a buyer.
2:47 Speaker 02 I've bought and sold so much real estate over the decades that I can tell you that at least half the time I go to see a house that is occupied for sale, that the sellers have been clueless or lazy about getting that house ready for sale to be on the market. That first impression, that emotional first connection with a house is so very important with buyers. And today with interest rates having spiked again because of the Iran war and inflation
3:30 Speaker 02 cooking again in the United States, ugly inflation recently, four-year-high on inflation pushed interest rates up. Standing out there as a seller in a market where buyers are like, I don't know, interest rates are high, housing prices are high, for you to stand out where somebody's going to want your home, it's got to have, first of all, curb appeal. Somebody drives up, it's got to be their fantasy, it's got to look good. The lawn has, if you've got a lawn, it's got to look good. The landscaping, all that green stuff you have around the house has to look good.
4:12 Speaker 02 And then inside, maybe the house needs a fresh coat of paint. Maybe there are some things you put off repairing that are going to be obvious to a potential buyer, or certainly to the home inspector they would have. You don't want to put things out there that kill the fantasy, the desire of people to want to buy your home. And I saw a story recently that I thought was quite funny. It was in Market Watch about how people are posting, asking people who come look at their home to post on social media what they didn't like about the house.
4:57 Speaker 02 And you gotta have a thick skin for this. But people are doing it because they want that feedback, the things that you don't even see as a seller, that will get you to focus on what it's going to take to be the house that stands out, that a buyer is buying their fantasy. You know, buying a home is both a practical thing that you live in and that emotional connection. You need to hook them. And you hook them early by having that house look good, not be a fixer-upper that they're going to have to deal with. Now, we have an unusual situation today. Instead of Krista, we have my wife, Laine, today.
5:42 Speaker 03 Hi there.
5:43 Speaker 02 And Laine's going to be with us the next week and a half because Krista's on vacation. And for the first time ever since the podcast started, Krista and I were not able to coordinate this particular vacation. So, Laine, thank you for coming in.
6:00 Speaker 03 I can see why she would need a big vacation, you know.
6:03 Speaker 02 Being with me?
6:04 Speaker 03 Yeah.
6:04 Speaker 02 I got it. So. You ready to hit me with the first question?
6:08 Speaker 03 I am ready. Okay, so first of all, we have Crystal in Florida. And Crystal says, "I'm placing my house on the market in Jacksonville, Florida. When I was looking over the paperwork for the contract, there was an option there for me to agree to pay 2% to a second Realtor if they bring the buyer to the deal. That means I would pay my Realtor 3% and pay the other Realtor 2%, putting me back at 5% of my home sale going to Realtors. Is this common practice now and are you seeing this elsewhere? What other options do you have? I did ask our Realtor what would happen if we didn't agree to that. And he just said that other Realtors would not show our property.
6:52 Speaker 03 So she says, "There's always a backdoor way around the law."
6:56 Speaker 02 Okay, so what you're referring to, Crystal, is how court decision and an agreement that the real estate industry made with the court means that now the commissions are negotiable. Your agent, your listing agent, just popped that 2% in there. You have the right to negotiate what that listing agent's going to receive. That 3%, you can say, "You know what? I really only want to pay you 2%, 2.5%." And that listing agent has the right to say, "Well, then I'm making the choice that I don't want to handle your listing." You have that negotiating power.
7:37 Speaker 02 With the buyer's agent, that second commission is for the person who brings a buyer to your home. If you put down zero, that's right, they're not going to show your house. They're going to do what's called steering, where they just magically never tell their buyer about your home. So you gotta pay them. I mean... Why are they going to have any incentive to show your home if you're telling them they're not going to get paid for doing so? So then the question comes, what is that commission? Is it one and a half? Is it two, two and a half? It's kind of settling into numbers in different metro areas.
8:15 Speaker 02 The good news is what people are having to pay is lower than it was generally around the country before. Florida was historically, depending on which market, a 6% or 7% commission market. You're talking about it being five at what the agent has already prefilled. That's already an improvement of where the market was. And so the trend has been sellers' friends, but it's not led to a collapse of commissions, generally just a reduction in commissions. And you are the one who decides. You don't have to accept what's put on that piece of paper.
8:59 Speaker 03 All right. We also have Lisa in Texas, and she says, "My daughter wants to buy a particular house that's currently on the market, but she can't purchase it until her house sells. Is there any harm in me paying cash for the house? And then when her house sells, she can repay me with the same price that I purchased it for? I would pull the money from my brokerage account and Roth IRA. I know I'd lose interest until I get paid back, but it would be worth it since the grandkids would be close to me."
9:32 Speaker 02 Oh.
9:33 Speaker 03 Yeah. "I'm over 59 and a half, and I've had the accounts for over five years. I have over a million set aside for retirement. Please let me know if there's any downside to this besides losing the interest." She says she's enjoyed your podcast for many years.
9:49 Speaker 02 Well, thank you very much for that. Lisa, okay. The way I heard what you read, Lain, is that you would buy the house and then turn around and sell it to your daughter? That's not how you want to do this. That's way too complicated. What you would normally do is she buys the house and you are the lender.
10:14 Speaker 02 You do a loan with her. You're gonna have to have a lawyer involved anyway, a lawyer who does real estate closings. And you just set it up where you do a loan to your daughter. The IRS will require that you charge her a nominal interest rate. They reset the rate. I'm trying to remember how many times a year, but the real estate attorney will know what that rate is. And she'll pay you this nominal rate of interest. When her current house sells, then she just pays off the loan and she owns the house free and clear. That's the right way to do this. And for you, the nominal interest will make up some of what you might
10:57 Speaker 02 be foregoing by not having the money invested or saved. But this is a very common thing that parents do. And I can tell you, this will not be the first rodeo for that real estate closing attorney to set this up for you. It is such a simple streamlined procedure.
11:17 Speaker 03 That's really kind of Lisa. Okay, so we also have
11:21 Speaker 02 You want to lend me some?
11:22 Speaker 03 I don't know. I don't know. I'll think about it.
11:24 Speaker 02 Okay.
11:25 Speaker 03 Okay, so we have another question from Florida. This is Mary in Florida. And she said, "My spouse and I are first time home buyers in Florida, and we recently found a property that we are very interested in purchasing. The home went through a long foreclosure process and is now owned by Freddie Mac, after the previous owner reportedly did not pay the mortgage for about five years."
11:48 Speaker 02 Wait, wait, wait. They got to live in their house mortgage-free for five years?
11:52 Speaker 03 Yeah, that's pretty bad, isn't it? Okay, and repeatedly, they delayed the foreclosure case in court. The Freddie Mac lawyer called it "bountiful frivolous filing with no legal merit."
12:05 Speaker 02 No kidding.
12:07 Speaker 03 The property is not officially listed for sale yet, but we believe it may become available soon. And we are trying to understand whether pursuing a distressed foreclosure REO property as first time buyers is a smart financial move, or whether the risks are just too high for inexperienced buyers. So what steps should we take before the property is listed? Should we try contacting Freddie Mac or the future listing broker early? Is there any room to negotiate with Freddie Mac because of the background of the previous owner? And how can we evaluate whether this is a good opportunity versus a property with hidden repair or legal problems?
12:45 Speaker 02 All right, Mary, the very first property I ever bought when I was 22 years old was an REO. REO means real estate owned, meaning that the lender ended up with the property. Now Freddie Mac will probably use an agency, or it may even somehow be a firm that they turn the property over to to handle the sale. So you need to hunt for an agent to represent you. And you'll have to agree, in this case, you'd have to agree to pay them, back to the prior question about commissions, maybe one and a half, 2% to represent you in this.
13:30 Speaker 02 And they will be the ones that will figure out how the property is going to be disposed of, who's going to handle the sale of the REO for Freddie Mac. And as to whether it's a good idea to buy a home, somebody didn't pay on for five years, an inspection is going to be really important. Because what happens in a case where somebody is just trying to freeload for year after year after year, is they're not fixing anything.
14:06 Speaker 02 And you don't know how much they trashed the place through those five years. So you want to be able to buy it, the whole purpose of buying the REO because it's more effort. You want to be able to buy it below market and you also have to budget for the oops you're going to have with the various things that have not been properly maintained that you're going to end up responsible for. There was an REO near us in Florida that had a similar situation. And Lane, you remember how sad that house looked?
14:42 Speaker 03 I do. It was very sad.
14:43 Speaker 02 And there was all kinds of shenanigans where in that case, the family was able to stay in it four years without ever making a payment. And by the time that house was finally foreclosed on, wow, the people who bought it, they ended up with a major project. The house had moisture damage and other things that they had to deal with. So I don't say that to discourage you. I say that for you to go in with your eyes open. And yes, I have bought foreclosures repeatedly. I've always bought them as REOs and it's always worked out for me.
15:24 Speaker 02 But I've always had things I'd had to deal with because it was an REO. So just first time home buyer, you're thinking, can I really handle this? Yes, just requires more work, but it may in fact generate an instant return on your money if you can buy it below what the general market prices are in that neighborhood, in that area. Coming up ahead. Wow. How would you feel if you woke up one day and all the money you'd worked hard to save and invest had vanished?
16:06 Speaker 02 Well, let me tell you the story and you'll really take seriously my suggestions on paper statements, straight ahead.
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18:47 Speaker 02 Okay, I'll admit it. I'm so analog on this. I have an obsession with getting paper statements from, I don't have a bank account, but from credit unions and from brokerages, retirement accounts, those kinds of things. And every single time I sign into any of my accounts, they're trying to get me to go paperless. And I don't do it. And at some point, I'll be incentivized, required, whatever, to go paperless. But there's something I will do, and you're about to hear why. You may have seen this story. I don't know where it first appeared, but I've seen several versions of it.
19:31 Speaker 02 Right now, I'm looking at one from the New York Times. Thirty-five-year-old physician assistant named Marta, lives in Colorado, got a weird text from Fidelity about her accounts there. And she was like, what is this about? She got a message saying that her phone number and email address had been removed from her profile and to contact Fidelity if she hadn't done it. So she logs into her account, and all her money was gone. All her accounts were zeroed out. She had been saving and investing with Fidelity for decades. Started as a teenager. Don't you love that? Don't you love that?
20:15 Speaker 02 When somebody starts saving for the future when they're a teenager? She did that. And it turned out, that wasn't working in her favor, because after decades, all her money, she started at 16, by the way, saving, just vanished in the night. So she calls Fidelity, and she's on call after call with them. And finally, one of the reps said, aren't you sure you shouldn't be calling Schwab? Are you sure your accounts are with us? Her records from their end had gone away. And she was getting all paperless statements. So all she could see on the screen was all zeros on her accounts.
21:00 Speaker 02 And no record of her money. And they, when they would pull up at Fidelity, she didn't exist. She was as upset as you can imagine, having spent decades saving money, investing. And call after call with Fidelity was useless. And they finally said, well, you know what? You need to go into a Fidelity Investor Center. Well, she lives in rural Colorado. It was a two and a half hour drive for her to the nearest branch. She was supposed to take her stuff. She had to cancel an entire day of seeing patients. Go there and still they couldn't figure anything out. This is unbelievable, right?
21:44 Speaker 02 And she had no proof of any kind that she had actually had these accounts because she was all paperless. And what I didn't like, and the reason I'm fixated on the New York Times story, is basically Fidelity blew off the New York Times. Eventually, her money was found, was restored. But after a lot of heartache and a lot of effort on her part, the money was inaccessible for a good period of time. Thank goodness she didn't need it. And Fidelity's response was so uncaring and flippant. This was a case where Fidelity should have said, if I were running Fidelity, that it's a family owned business, they're very inward.
22:27 Speaker 02 I would said, this was a terrible error on our part. We apologize for the inconvenience. And we're doing everything we can to make sure nothing like this happens again. Apparently, she was not the only person whose accounts just got wiped out with a computer problem. You throw into this what's going on right now with, you know, the AI assistant Claude has developed a software tool called, I think it's Mythos? I assume you pronounce M Y T H O S, Mythos. That has the ability to go into any bank system, look for cyber, what they call cyber holes, and go in and just cause absolute mischief at any bank or brokerage in the world.
23:11 Speaker 02 So am I trying to unsettle you? You bet. Am I trying to get you to put into action a plan that will give you proof of what you've got? You know it. And so, odds are overwhelming that you are paperless now because of us being beaten over the head over and over again. Vanguard, with a lot of its accounts, charges you extra fees if you get paper statements. So, obviously, if you're with Vanguard, you're cheap like I am, so you've gone paperless. So I want you to, when your statements come in, download them as a PDF, so you have them.
23:52 Speaker 02 So that if your accounts ever have to be reconstructed, you're going to need that proof. And know that this is a warning, like a shot over the bow. Because this was an internal fidelity problem that apparently affected an unknown number of people that fidelity won't disclose. But what happens if it is a foreign actor that comes in to cause chaos in the American financial system? You are going to be relied on in a catastrophic data breach or malware or whatever to prove what you had. You worked too hard for your money, living on less than what you make.
24:34 Speaker 02 You have to make sure that you have put up the necessary guardrails to see that your money will be restored. No proof could end up being no way back to your money. And no, I am not telling you to put your money under a mattress. I know there are people that'll think that's the best answer. It's not, because what does your money earn under the mattress? Right now, a minus 4. something percent per year because of the hit of inflation. Your money needs to work for you, needs to be invested for your future, because investing is how you outrun inflation and build wealth.
25:18 Speaker 03 Well, that's scary.
25:20 Speaker 02 Sorry.
25:20 Speaker 03 That's terrifying.
25:21 Speaker 02 I mean, you have heard me for how many
25:23 Speaker 03 Oh, yes.
25:24 Speaker 02 years talk about why we have to maintain like
25:27 Speaker 03 And my inclination is to stick some money under the, you know, under the mattress. So.
25:32 Speaker 02 Well, what do you say about these investment accounts we have?
25:35 Speaker 03 I'm worried. I get worried and
25:37 Speaker 02 You're always nervous.
25:38 Speaker 03 I'm always nervous because they're just numbers on a page and that's terrifying these days. All right.
25:45 Speaker 02 But it's worked out for us.
25:46 Speaker 03 So far, it has worked out. Okay, so we have a question from anonymous in Massachusetts. Okay, I've learned a lot from your show and I really value how realistic and encouraging your financial advice is. So I wanted to ask for your perspective on my situation. I'd appreciate your advice on how to responsibly recover from a difficult debt situation and figure out the smartest path forward. I currently have two charged off vehicle loans, approximately 31,000 and 29,000. Both vehicles were involved in accidents under circumstances I was not personally involved in. Insurance denied the claims,
26:29 Speaker 03 which also meant the gap coverage didn't apply.
26:33 Speaker 02 Wait, wait, wait, wait.
26:34 Speaker 03 Yeah.
26:35 Speaker 02 Okay, both vehicles had outstanding loans.
26:38 Speaker 03 Yes.
26:40 Speaker 02 No explanation about what the circumstances were?
26:43 Speaker 03 No.
26:44 Speaker 02 That insurance denied the claims?
26:46 Speaker 03 Yeah.
26:47 Speaker 02 Okay, that sounds weird.
26:48 Speaker 03 Yeah. And so they say altogether, I'm carrying around 99,000 in total debt. And while I'm trying to stay responsible with my finances, there's no realistic way for me to pay these balances off outright. I want to avoid making panic decisions, but I also don't want to spend years frozen and overwhelmed. In a situation like this, how would you evaluate options like settlements, payment plans, bankruptcy consultation, or credit rebuilding? What would you focus on first if the goal is to eventually recover financially and move forward with life?
27:23 Speaker 02 All right, so.
27:26 Speaker 02 The collateral's gone for the lenders. Both vehicles, I'm gathering, were totaled in these accidents. I don't really, I don't even know what to think, why insurance would not pay. If, who was driving, who you let drive your vehicles, or just took them, whatever. Unusual circumstance. The lenders will probably be willing to reach some kind of settlement with you because if you've got nothing, you actually have power here. So let's deal first with the 60 grand owed on the two vehicle loans, which is roughly 60% of the debt you have.
28:06 Speaker 02 The lenders will almost certainly, they'll want financials from you, understand your cash flow, your obligations, what you make, and they'll probably offer you pennies on the dollar settlements against these amounts. Because they know that the alternative is you could bankrupt out, and then they get nothing. So you, in this case, you owe all this money, but you're the one with the power in the situation. So, payment plan. Really what you want is settlement. You'd have to come up with the cash somewhere for whatever deal that each lender would make with you on these two vehicles.
28:51 Speaker 02 Your credit is going to suffer for seven years from having these repos, what are basically repossession, no matter what. So you make the best deal you can. But the power you have is you do have the power potentially of filing for bankruptcy. That is the real power. Now, if you contact each lender, and they're really not interested in talking, a settlement that you can afford against these debts, and by the way, if they do offer you a settlement, it must be in writing. Anything verbal is meaningless, that in return for paying this much money, it is payment in full against the debt.
29:35 Speaker 02 That's essentially what it boils down to. Now, if you run into a brick wall, before you would consider filing for bankruptcy, I want you to go sit down with a legit credit counselor. And you can start with the National Foundation for Credit Counseling at NFCC.org and find a legitimate credit counselor near you in Massachusetts that you can either meet with by phone, video call, or in person and see what they can negotiate for you. They are legitimate nonprofit organizations that work on behalf of you, I know this is
30:20 Speaker 02 weird, you and the creditor, to get as much money as reasonable that you can afford to pay. And the idea is everybody loses less in that situation. And let me hear back from you how it plays.
30:37 Speaker 03 All right, well, we have a tip from Ann in California for you, or for everybody watching and listening. She says, "I have been applying what I learned from Clark's investment advice to my gas purchases. Every time I go to Costco, I fill up my tank rather than waiting until it's a quarter tank. And I consider this dollar-cost averaging. So I catch the price on the way up and the price on the way down. Thanks for all that your team, you and your team do."
31:08 Speaker 02 And Ann is a Californian. I want to tell you how grateful I am to all the Californians who wrote in after I talked about the forever lines at the Costco in El Segundo and told me to go on the way to the airport to the Costco in Marina Del Rey where the lines are crazy shorter. So I was able, near LAX, to get cheaper gas and not have to stand in line to the point where I'd miss my flight trying to fill up the vehicle. Because it's a riot at this station in El Segundo. The cars are all the way out of the Costco parking
31:49 Speaker 02 lot on a side street going back to the main road, just in line to buy gas. Because right now with gas in California being six bucks plus a gallon in a lot of places, people have a really a big focus right now on lowering the cost of gas.
32:07 Speaker 03 All right, and we have M. in Colorado. And M. says, "I'm traveling overseas and the Delta app tells me to scan my passport to see if there are any steps I need to take. What does this mean? Doesn't the government already have a copy of my passport? For reference, I opt out of the TSA picture scanning and just show my ID and smile to allow the TSA agent to compare my face to my ID. So my question is, should I submit my passport to the Delta app or just show up to the counter with my passport? What is Delta looking for specifically? Thank you very much. I tell my friends to call your Consumer Action Center all the time because that's what I would do."
32:51 Speaker 02 Well, M., I hope you have a great trip overseas. And Delta makes it sound in their app like you have to do the passport scan upfront. Delta is trying to get everything automated at the gates and a lot of their airports. They've been trying to do where they don't have to have a human be part of the process of you boarding. You go up, a camera looks at you, decides you are who you say you are. Well, they haven't even asked who you are. They know you're checked in for that flight. If it's an international, that your documents are okay and you just go right on the plane. It's all about labor saving and time saving for Delta.
33:33 Speaker 02 So you can do it the old way, even though Delta has trained their employees to make it feel to you like you must do the whole electronic process on the app and let them capture the image of your passport. The airlines are really freaked about having a passenger fly overseas, be rejected at immigration wherever the plane flew to. And then having to fly you back, you get no trip and they have to fly you back because you didn't meet whatever documentary requirement and electronic travel authority or whatever it might be for where you're going or a visa.
34:16 Speaker 02 And the airline may be fined 10,000 or more dollars per passenger who gets rejected at immigration. So the airlines are trying to automate the process of verifying that you have a passport with at least six months on it remaining, that you have whatever electronic travel ETA, electronic travel authority you're supposed to have or visa that you're required to have before you ever are checked in for the flight. So it's like another barrier to somebody getting on a plane, thinking they're okay to fly somewhere, but they're not. So it's totally up to you, Em, if you want to do it, but that's what this is about.
35:00 Speaker 02 So I hope you have a wonderful time, wherever Delta takes you from Colorado to somewhere beautiful overseas. And it's been beautiful. Lane, thank you so much.
35:14 Speaker 03 Thank you.
35:14 Speaker 02 For...
35:15 Speaker 03 Thank you for having me.
35:16 Speaker 02 Subbing in for Krista while she's on vacay. And you're going to be with us for several more podcast days.
35:23 Speaker 03 Sounds fun.
35:24 Speaker 02 What do you think of it so far?
35:25 Speaker 03 Ah, well, I can't take Krista's place, but it's fun. I'm having a good time.
35:29 Speaker 02 Well, that's good. And what we're all about is you. We're all about you being empowered with knowledge so that you can save more, spend less, and never, never, never, not ever, get ripped off. And coming up on Friday, you get to hear how you feel I ripped you off in this week's Clark Stinks.
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