appraisal

Four Must-Look-Out Seller Contract Deadlines

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Among other terms, below are 4 primary contract contingencies established between you and the other party to look out for.

Cash or Financed Transactions

  • Inspection: Upon completion of property inspections within inspection period established between seller and buyer, buyer may withdraw/renegotiate their offer based on inspection findings without risk of losing escrow.
  • Clean Title: This is a seller contingency. So as long as seller provides clean and marketable title, buyer cannot utilize this contingency to withdraw/renegotiate their offer based on title findings without risk of losing escrow.

Financed Transaction Only

  • Appraisal: Upon completion of appraisal within appraisal period established between seller and buyer, buyer may withdraw/renegotiate their offer should appraisal value come in below purchase price without risk of losing escrow.
  • Letter of Commitment (LOC) or Loan Guarantee: Buyer must provide LOC to seller within LOC period established between seller and buyer in order to withdraw/renegotiate their offer based on buyer’s lender’s ability to guarantee the loan without risk of losing escrow.

More Tips?

When To Dump Your Lender

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When To Dump Your Lender? Or why would you?

If you are buying a home through financing, the process of asking and getting documents between each other (you and the lender) must be like syrup and pancakes: amazing! (noticed am a fan of pancakes with syrup?). SO…what does that mean?

Simple things like getting the application out of the way within 48 hours from the moment you enter contract with a seller. And ordering the appraisal within 24 hours after completion of application. And these are just a few examples.

If your lender drags their feet on the above, DUMP THEM. If within the first 72 hours, your lender has not pro-actively gone after you for the application and fee in order to get the appraisal going…DUMP THEM. It’s that simple.

Why? The hurdles involved in financing a deal can be complicated not just because of what the lender may demand from you the buyer, but what they may ask from the seller. If the lender is not on “the ball” from the get go…95% for sure that you will not meet the deadline to provide seller loan commitment (or LOC) and or not close on time.

And that is no light issue as your good faith deposit may be at stake.

The average financing transaction takes about 30 to 45 to close. And trust me…you will need every single day at your disposal. And the truth of the matter is that 30 days is just about the right amount of time needed to close a deal so as long as your loan representative is not only competent, but is also able to push the right buttons on the lender’s back end to make the deal run smoothly.

What about forty-five days to close? I would dare to say that 45 days is way too long to close a deal…but it’s not outside reasonableness.

As a matter of fact, within the first 15 to 20 days, you should know if you will be closing on day 30 or 45…whichever you and the seller agreed. UNLESS…there are title issues…but that is a seller problem…not a buyer’s problem.

Submitting Offers Without Success?

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Despite the media hype about the overflow of real estate homes, buying a foreclosure in today’s market can be complicated. Without the right advice and guidance, buyers often become de-motivated, fed up and tired of submitting offers to countless foreclosures. Here is my simple tip for increasing your chances of scoring a good foreclosed home…submit an offer above asking price….higher….higher!

Why? REO sellers price their properties below market value. This is a tactic utilized to lure in as many buyers as possible offers, house, successfull, bid, bidding, closedinto a deal at the same. The lower the price, the more people find out about the property.

The more people find out about the property, emotions run wilder. And the more wild emotions get…the higher offer amounts people submit relative to the asking price. Off course…there is no need to submit offers above fair market value, but definitely above asking price. It is very usual to see 4, 5, 8, or even 10 offers on a particular property.

In addition, knowing what terms (non- price related) should accompany an offer is key to a successful bid. Say you are financing a deal, yet we know we are competing against cash offers. Well, cash offers mainly have two contingencies that protect them (which is why sellers prefer cash as opposed to financing where you may have at least 5 or 6 contingencies that protect the buyer)…the inspection period and clean title.

For a buyer that is financing a deal, your inspection, appraisal, title, letter of commitment and so on…must be super aggressive in order to entice the seller to choose your offer over the cash deal. It’s tough, but doable.

Prices Up. Show Me The Money!

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A combination of almost no available inventory due to sellers holding on to the fence and foreclosed homes not hitting the market at expected rates is creating a nice upward price-ride for home sellers. Price a property 5% to 10% above fair market value based on sold comparable during last 6 months and it will sell. Obviously, choosing the comps are key to determining the correct floor to set the price. So…if there no inventory, buyers are getting loans and have the cash to close them…where’s the bump in the road?  Appraisals.

Appraisals continue to be the itch in a healing wound. If they was only a science to calculating price across the board, life would rock. But it’s not a science. Unfortunately its an art. Yes…Zillow is good at getting close to giving an idea of what is a house is worth, but not great. Mind you…I am a fan of them. But this is not about Zillow or the appraisers. This is about an industry that is picking up at a pace no one ever saw coming.

Critics. Say what you want. This is a phase. This is temporary. Who cares. Even if it is. Its a step int the right direction. Its positive news. And we will take it any day of the week. Based on numbers, I don’t think this is temporary. At least not in Miami Dade County considering that at this point in time there is only a 4-month supply of inventory across single family homes, townhouses and condos. Yes. Condos. I know. I can’t believe it either. Don’t believe me? Put you property for sale at the right price (just for cracks and giggles), and you will see offers (plural) lining out the door. And that goes for ugly homes too.