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November 29th, 2011 - Beware of Real Estate Contracts
Beware of Real Estate Contracts
November 15th, 2011 - Short-sales: good grief!
I am wondering why the banks decided to call a house “sold” prior to foreclosure a short sale. There is nothing short about the process. It is frustrating and requires a ton of patience. If anything; it is a long sale! I am representing a client who has been waiting for an answer from the bank for over two months. His offer is a good offer and he is more than qualified to purchase the house. The bank however; is in no hurry to sell the property. The current seller has money in the bank but; the bank wants him to be penniless before they will forgive the million dollars we are asking them to forgive. I know this is a lot of money, but the banks are doing this routinely. The seller is not a bad guy, he was a builder who is now losing his home like so many other builders before him. This builder just managed to hang on to his home a little longer and he kept thinking that the economy would turn around and that he would be able to out run the fate of others like him. The biggest problem with the short-sale process is this: Banks don’t care about the buyer, they have no sense of urgency and they take their sweet time while the buyer agonizes about whether or not they will get the house they want. It’s simply a numbers game for the bank, they want to recover as much money as possible since they have been losing so much money on all of the foreclosures. In a way you can’t blame them, but then on the other hand, we want them to understand that the buyer is not the enemy, the buyer is ready to get this debt off the bank books. This is where I start yearning for the good ole days when buyers and sellers got mad at each other. The buyer making a low offer and the seller getting offended! But hey; at least they were communicating! The entire process of buying a house would take about 30 days! Negotiating the contract only took a couple of days (not months) and in the end, the seller and the buyer met at the closing table as friends. The buyer would always get helpful information from the seller about the schools, neighborhood, shopping and churches. Aaaahhhh “back in the day”! So here are a few tips about buying a short sale: Bring your patience, know that sellers are not taking care of the properties (if they are not paying the mortgage, they don’t care about the HAVAC filters) and they are not paying much attention to the maintenance in general. Get inspections on all of the systems, structure and termites. Make sure that your binding agreement date is when the bank signs the offer, not when the seller signs the offer. And make sure that you list the appliances in the offer along with the light fixtures and other items the seller claims they are leaving with the property. Sellers are often angry that they are not making any money and they take things at the last minute, so do a walk through before you go to the closing table! And most of all remember: Short sales and foreclosures are not the only good deals out there. Sellers are negotiating more now than ever, because they are in competition with the short-sales and foreclosures. Not to mention that appraisers are using them for appraisals and it brings down the value of any home on the market in the same neighborhood.
October 27th, 2011 - Flip that house!
Historically low interest rates combined with opportunities in low housing prices will eventually result in a shift of the current momentum~ I am certain that this will occur when people “remember” that real estate is still a good investment.
The question is: “Are you prepared to capitalize on this change in momentum?” So goes the wisdom at the real estate seminar I attended this week: Flip that house!
Is real estate that opportunity? Is real estate still a good investment? I am asked this question several times a week. I agree 100 percent that this is the ultimate “buyers market” and people should absolutely be buying right now. The problem is that most buyers don’t know what to buy, when to buy, where to buy and how to buy.
The choices that a buyer makes in these areas will completely determine the quality of their investment. In real estate, experience may not be the best teacher. Rather, the best teacher is “experience evaluated.” You must actually pay attention and learn something from every experience and to be sure, losing money is not the teacher we want to embrace.
But the truth is, you don’t have to lose money in real estate ~ a smart purchase is still a good investment. For those of us who are paying attention and are completely focused on how we can make a positive change in the world, we understand that the difference between making a living in real estate and being successful in real estate comes down to the quality of our service, our knowledge and the recommendation’s we make to our clients.
So recommending investment properties is not something I would do carelessly. There is no doubt that investors can make money buying properties and not necessarily from buying rental properties.
The theme of this seminar was ” flip that house” so they were advocating buying properties for $50,000 to $100,000, clean them up and putting them back on the market. (Sound familiar? This was one of my earlier blogs!)
So here are the takeaways: Believe that opportunity knocks ~ do you answer? Get the knowledge or help necessary to make good decisions ~ take action.
As to the real estate seminar I attended: Yes, I learned something. They make a ton of money selling CDs and workshops.
Rebecca Currie
Elite Real Estate Properties
October 20th, 2011 - Ethics in Real Estate?
What Happened to Ethics in Real Estate?
It has been said that he who controls the information wins. And in real estate, agents no longer control the information. I have to admit that we were scared of the Internet when we first lost control of the information to buyers. But in the end, it became an asset instead of a liability. It has helped us spend less time driving people around only to discover that they don’t like the house after seeing it. It still happens, but not as much as it use to.. So what am I complaining about?
It use to be that when an agent listed a house, the seller’s contact number would be listed in the FMLS and when a buyers agent wanted to show the house, then the buyer’s agent would call the seller to make an appointment; the seller wanting to sell their house always made it easy for the buyers agent to show their house.
Now comes the greedy agent: trying to appear that they are giving good service to the seller by not allowing the buyers agents to call the sellers directly to make an appointment. Instead, the buyers agent has to call the listing agent to make an appointment and the sellers agent will then call the sellers to make the appointment and then call the buyers agent back. Huh? Whew, that made me dizzy! Why does this make sense to anyone? The flaw in the plan is this: the sellers agent, themselves.
They are almost never available, they won’t call back in a timely manner and in most cases it is the next day before they call you back and your buyer is now so frustrated that they don’t want to to see the house. Some agents won’t call you after 7 p.m. or before 9 a.m. and mostly they never call on Saturdays or Sundays. I am not even going to go into the agents who can’t text.
To sum this up: If you are listing your house with an agent, don’t fall for that mess. The agent is only trying to give themselves a reason to talk to the seller and they are trying to control the information. Sellers want constant dialogue with their agent, so this makes sense to the listing agent, but it is a big problem in this industry and it is not helping you sell your house.
However, I give you this caveat: The above does not pertain to all agents, but if your house is not being shown, then test the theory. Ask an agent to call your listing agent and see what happens.
October 4th, 2011 - For sale by owner FSBO
Attorneys don’t represent themselves because the belief is this: If you represent yourself; you have a fool for a client! Same thing with the Seller of a home: It is a highly emotionally charged situation.. the seller always feels as though they have the BEST house on the market and they are not normally qualified to negotiate with a buyer. They are typically too emotional about what they are selling.. Also they normally price their houses too high: Maybe they saved the commission, but they probably lost more through bad negotiations. And to say that a seller should hire a real estate attorney to help negotiate the sale is also foolish since real estate attorneys are normally “closing” attorneys who don’t negotiate for a living. They check title, read contracts and they represent the lender in the transaction (in Georgia anyway).
Most real estate agents negotiate more contracts in one month for the sell or purchase of a house than a seller or a buyer negotiates in a life time… This makes a professional real estate broker the expert. Not to mention a real estate broker will KNOW who the person is, prior to them entering the house.. so unqualified people will not be looking at the house or worse: a thief! Think safety for a moment… and how do you know as a seller if you are wasting your time negotiating with a lookie lu or the craig’s list killer?
September 22nd, 2011 - Million dollar homes on the upswing!
Housing market on the up swing!
This is great news for the economy, however; not such great news for my clients! Buyers have been sitting on the fence thinking that the market is going to get worse and that they should wait to buy, in order to get a great deal on a house. I am here to tell you that you may have waited too long.
Just last week, I made an offer on behalf of my clients on a house that had been sitting for over 2 years! On the same day, another offer was also made on the same house. It is a reoccurring theme in this market. I am told by my fellow brokers that this scenario is happening to them as well.
It seems as though the hot market right now is $1,000,000. We have not had many million dollar homes dumped on the market by way of foreclosures so the deals aren’t there anymore. The $300- $400,000 market was very strong during the early spring and summer months of this year.
The way I see it.. this is a trend. The market is correcting itself. It may not be as fast as we want it to be and house prices have not really increased, but they certainly will increase when the inventory is gone through good old: Supply and Demand.
So I hate to tell you; I told you so, but if you have been reading my blogs, you will recall, I have been saying: “now is the best time to buy”. The market is getting thin for great deals and great houses. You do not want to be stuck with the houses that are in terrible condition because you waited too long to buy your next house.
August 31st, 2011 - People look at houses they cannot afford
August 31st, 2011 - Caveat Emptor ~ Let the Buyer Beware!
Referral fees in Real Estate
I recently listened to a radio talk show host who helps people get out of debt…I thought; now here is a person who is a real consumer advocate and he cares about his listeners! He routinely recommends real estate agents to his audience as “Preferred real estate agents” and according to him: Agents have been pre-screened by his company so that the consumer will get a good agent! So I called to see what his requirements are for his ”preferred agents”. I was told that the agent must close at lease 150 houses a year to become one of his preferred agents. How is that possible; I asked? That breaks down to 12.5 houses a month! ~ It isn’t even possible to represent 12.5 people buying or selling houses in one month. How could any agent possibly juggle 12.5 clients a month, much less actually represent them, that is insane! To which his representative said: well unless they are producing that many sales, we won’t recommend them. So the real truth is that the agent has to be a money making machine and the agent has been pre-screened to make sure that the talk show host gets paid for his recommendation of that agent. The referral is not about the quality of the agent, it is about the amount of money the agent can make for the radio talk show host! So it is simply a numbers game. Lets get serious.. how can anyone get quality representation from a person who is managing that many people at once?
So beware! Talk show host make money recommending vendors to their listeners so that’s the motive, not to actually help consumers. So who does he represent? His listeners, himself or the agent? If a person is getting money for referring you to a vendor.. how can you trust that referral? So just be careful. I would like to think that the person who refers a vendor to me, actually knows the vendor that they are recommending and that their referral is not motivated by money. And that the person being recommenced has integrity and is honest and does good work. There are plenty of commercials and advertisments shouting at us about their products and services, so when we hear from someone we trust, telling us to use someone’s services, we think we are getting a good recommendation by someone who actually cares about us. So always ask the person who is referring someone to you, if he is being paid for the referral and if they have personal knowledge of that referrals competence. I think the answer will shock you.
August 22nd, 2011 - More Apartment complexes? Seriously?
More apartment complexes?
I am not a big fan of apartments and I just learned that Post Properties will begin the construction of more apartment buildings by the end of this year. This reminds me of the early 2000′s when apartment buildings were popping up everywhere. Why is this? For the first time in decades, it is more affordable to buy a house than it is to rent an apartment. So why are most apartment buildings 90% occupied? I understand that for some people there is no other choice; bad credit or no down payment. But for those folks who have good credit, a good job and a little savings, this is the time to get out of an apartment and buy a home with a garage and a yard. Owning your first home is very exciting but it is also a lot of work. You can walk away from an apartment when you travel or you can call the maintenance staff if you have problems. With your own home, you can buy a warranty that will cover systems and appliances, so if you have a problem with the air conditioning or heating system, you call the warranty company and they send a service person. (But like anything else, there are good companies and bad companies, so do your research). One of the most important things you can do when you buy a home is have an inspection. Once you have negotiated the sales price, you will want your agent to re-negotiate based on the inspection report. Agents are not inspectors, so you must hire an independent inspector in order for you to understand what you are actually buying. Even though you have more responsibility with a house (you will have to cut the grass and take care of the landscaping) there are service people to help you with that. That is one nice thing about living in Johns Creek, you can find someone to help you with just about anything. I personally think the benefits of owning your home home out-way the headaches of a few maintenance issues.
This is off the topic of houses, but I have to say this: I tell my Grandsons that they live in the Johns Creek Bubble and I recently discovered that I do too! I am so used to getting my car washed every-week – that it is no longer a luxury, it is a part of my routine. So when I traveled to the coast this summer I searched for a Car Wash business so I could get my car washed. I searched and searched and thought, I would settle for any kind of car wash, but I never found one. So I think it is safe to say that living in Johns Creek gives us a lot of services that we take for granted.
August 19th, 2011 - Stucco homes no good?
Wow: It seems as though, I have offended another blogger with my advice on how to sell your home. It is never my intent to be rude or offensive. I know that selling a house is a very emotional thing and that is why most sellers are not good at selling their own homes. Most real estate agents have a hard time telling homeowners that their choice of paint colors or carpet colors are not in keeping with what buyers are looking for. When the agent lists a home for sell, they really do want to get the seller the highest price for their home, but sometimes the decorating is way to personalized. Most Sellers normally believe that their home should sell for as much or more than the highest comparable in their neighborhood. This is not always the case. There are lots of reasons why one house sells for more than another one in the same subdivision. Paint colors are a big deterrent; Yes, I know that buyers can re-paint, but they almost never want to paint! Another problem is the fear of stucco. You may not know that many relocation companies will tell their employees not to buy a stucco house. I understand the difference between synthetic and hardcoat stucco, but most consumers don’t know the difference. I have made the statement that maybe a class action law suit is in order for the people who have made the decision – that if your home is synthetic stucco, your house should not be considered. I think it is reckless on the part of these companies to make a wide sweeping statement that all stucco houses are bad. There are other factors that buyers consider: houses on the main road through the subdivision, houses that back up to a street, or power lines are very hard to sell. The first house at the entrance of the subdivision is also a hard house to resell. It has been my experience that buyers will compromise when a house is new or in great condition, but when they go to sell that house, it won’t be as easy when it gets some age on it and there are other houses in the subdivision for sale on a better lot.