Realty As Is » Money

How to avoid the Tax Credit selling Train Wreck in Salt Lake

Tom Winand — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 18:28:03 +0000

From now until the end of April in Salt Lake County, there will be more offers written on homes for sale then there will be in all of 2010. Good news for home seller Right? We’ll maybe if you keep your guard up. I have to say the 2010 Home Bing Tax Credit expiring at the end of April will cause a real train wreck of buyer putting in multiple offers on lots of peppery and not really having intentions or means to buy them all. I talked to one buyer that has 6 offers in on short sales and said they would take the first one. I would bet there will be a lot of buyer doing the same with short sales and also having a non-short sale in the mix. I would bet the contract would go something like this closing on or before June 25 2010. I would bet the loan denial date would be like June 20 so they can back out of the transaction If they get a short sale a great deal and the poor home sell missing selling their home and because they Tax credit won’t be extended this time for a couple of months they will probably sell for a lot less money. The government is pulling out of subsidizing the home buying industry. They are raising the Treasury Bill rate and they will probably end the home buying tax credit. The reality is the real estate market in the country will come to a screeching halt in Aug and Sep so then they will act in November to the crisis. The government will get all in arm’s Barany Frank will get up and tall like he a concerned government superhero that know everything and it will be big news and big grandstanding and a new Tax credit form Nov 2010 to April 2011 will come out pretty much the same as today’s is it will have first time home buyers credit of $8,000 and 2^nd home buyers credit of $6,500 it they have owned for 5 years.

Back to my point how do you as a home owner not miss the best selling time with a bogus offer? We’ll you take a little piece of the short sale addendum allowing the property to stay on the market active because the offer is not binding. You can have multiple offers to buy the seller can accept all in order. The seller accepts an offer in first position and gives them a first offer the right to match the offer. Match what you say Price and ability to close. So there is no binding contract until the buyer shows the ability to close. Make the primary offers earnest money (at least 1% of sales price) non-refundable unless the inspection finds an undisclosed pertinent and substantial fact that affects the value of the home such that it will deter future home buyers, that he seller is unwilling to correct. So not the first offer ready to close force the primary offer to step up and match it or lose their earnest money if they back out. You may want to do 2% that how strongly I believe seller will be take advantage of in this crazy buyer purring in multiple offers. Some buyers will not disclose they have a home to sell. All listing agent should put a Q & A addendum do you own another home. Will you have to sell or rent the home to qualify? Then get a Pre Qualification letter stating the lender knows of this and they buyer qualifies without selling the home.

If you’re an agent or sell take this to heart it will be happening making offer on multiple property. It’s probably unethical if you don’t disclose it to the seller but agent think they can just put in contingency that will allow the buyer to back out. Like financing oh they can’t buy 2 home so they don’t qualify. Right we need to hold this kind of activity accountable but how?

Pricing your home in Salt Lake

Tom Winand — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 17:45:00 +0000

In pricing your home to sell it should have no relationship to what you own what you need to buy another home with 20% down. It never ceases to amaze me when a seller says I need this much that why I priced it at x. Buyers don’t care about what you need! Buyers care about getting the best home that fits there need at the best price they can get it. The # 1 thing in pricing is you have to be a buyer not a seller! So you have to look at the market as a buyer. Actually you have to evaluate the market in regards to buyers and market placement. So you compare your home to all the similar home that have sold, like to like, as an appraiser would. You use the same style same size + or – 10% and you take the closest and most recent sale. Not the highest sales subtract and seller paid concessions and you have a rough appraisal value. That actually means very little in pricing your home! It will tell you if you have an appraisal problem because no lender will lend more than the appraisal and no buyer will pay more for a home then its worth in this market.

Now you have a starting point. You then that that price range + and – 20% and look at all home in that price in any area a buyer would look at it looking at your home. So that may be 2 or 3 areas. Like Sugar house the Avenues and the President Streets and ABC Streets, even the Canyon Rim areas. Now you have your competition and you have to look at the # of homes. You need to know the # that go under contract and the # that sell in 60 days divided by 2. That will tell you the kind of market you are in or the absorption rate. The facts are if the absorption rate or the time in month it takes to sell the entire inventory is over 4 months you have a buyer’s market and over 6 months you have a decreasing market. The higher the absorption rate the more drastically decreasing a market you have. If you in the 6 or higher range you need to be aggressive actually 5% below your current market value or you will lose money chasing a market. Lower then 6 you can be less aggressive like at market a little higher than the market says. What does the market say? It says you have to be one to the best 10 homes in your market because buyers will look at 10 to 15 homes. You have the look that part online, if you’re not on the MLs you have to be on the 10 or so major sites they get 15% of the buyers seeing your home. If you’re on the MLS they will all see your home? You must have a great virtual tour or e-curb appeal. You have to have great appeal and great price per sqft and you have to Wow in Price and Wow in virtual curb appeal or your pricing strategy means nothing. How do you get all this data it available from the MLS and you will need a Realtor to pull it for you? It will take about an hour and I do them on a personal webinar and we do it together. Happy pricing and if you’re not getting offers in 30 days other than, crazy people wanting you to owner finance them, you’re probably priced too high! How much? You don’t want to be chasing a decreasing market; the answer is in the data. If you don’t what to know the absorption rate you can still price off the competition. How to do that is use the search on SpottedHome.com it’s a great map search. Hint register and save your closest competition in your favorites and only your competition and you will get price updates on them and other new listing like them automatically to your emailed. Your daily update will be automatic and you’re up to date so you’ll know what going on and how you compete. If you want to be on the MLS so you can guarantee your exposure to all the buyers look at my pay for service listing MLS site. http://forsalebyownerhelper.com Happy Pricing!

FDIC Pays West One Bank to Foreclose on Home Owners

Tom Winand — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 19:33:38 +0000

This is a great article on the How the FDIC really doesn’t want loans modified and they are putting our money up to prove it.

IndyMac, OneWest Bank, Taxpayers and the FDIC. Looking Into the Deal Between OneWest and The FDIC and Applying Math To The Resulting Shared Loss Agreement. – The Lim Team Real Estate

Video on the FDIC and West One Bank causing foreclosures FDIC spending your tax $ paying West One Bank formerly know as IndiMac Bank to Foreclose on there loans.

FDIC Paying for Foreclosure Click the Picture

203 K Streamline Loans are The Best Little Loan No One Knows About!

Tom Winand — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:02:11 +0000

203 K loans are the FHA loans that allow you to buy a home that is a fixer upper. The newly developed FHA 203 K Streamlined loan allows you to buy a home that is run down that wouldn’t qualify for FHA financing. As loan as there is no structural repairs needed. The list of allowable repairs is below. Buying with the FHA 203 K Streamlined loan is easy all you need to obtain contractors bids and submit them to your lender. This can be done at the time of inspection or maybe week of the inspection. Sure it more work but the get a home at a great buy and the money to fix it up at only 3.5% down payment, you’ll have to do a little more. It a great loan because it gives the buyer the ability to buy a Short sales, bank owned or just undervalued property that the seller won’t do FHA repair and have the home the way you want after closing with little of your buyers money . They can get up to $35,000 in repair, winterizing, greening up the home, put in new windows and R50 insulation in the attack, upgrade the electrical, making it just the way your client wants, and they just have to pay the 3.5% down on that portion and the rest in put in the loan. You can do allowable repairs up to $35,000 with no minimum; so if you just need $3,000 for carpet you can burrow that above the purchase price. If you need a new furnace and upgrade to the electrical system that’s Ok you just need to get bids form licensed contractor that meet requirement to do the work. Can you do the work yourself? Yes and no; you can do the work if you have the expertise and can prove it or if it is unskilled work like painting.

What improvements are eligible under the new Streamlined (k) program?

The Streamlined (k) program is intended to facilitate uncomplicated rehabilitation and/or improvements to a home for which plans, consultants, engineers and/or architects are not required. The Streamlined (k) program includes the discretionary improvements and/or repairs shown below:

Repair/Replacement of roofs, gutters and downspouts
Repair/Replacement/upgrade of existing HVAC systems
Repair/Replacement/upgrade of plumbing and electrical systems
Repair/Replacement of flooring
Minor remodeling, such as kitchens, which does not involve structural repairs
Painting, both exterior and interior
Weatherization, including storm windows and doors, insulation, weather stripping, etc.
Purchase and installation of appliances, including free-standing ranges, refrigerators, washers/dryers, dishwashers and microwave ovens
Accessibility improvements for persons with disabilities
Lead-based paint stabilization or abatement of lead-based paint hazards
Repair/replace/add exterior decks, patios, porches
Basement finishing and remodeling, which does not involve structural repairs
Basement waterproofing
Window and door replacements and exterior wall re-siding
Septic system and/or well repair or replacement

How do you get the extra money?

As the buyer you get contractor bid and with your loan officer calculated the cost into a 203 k Loan Worksheet. Your money will be released form title after the work is completed. Inspections are at the discretion of the lender. There are options to get ½ the cost up front if the contractor needs that for cost of materials but no more than 2 payments the initial and final after completion. This is loan is not for building a home or completing substantial work it a fixer up or and updating a home loan. It a great tool in today market to by Short sales and bank owned homes that need TLA and won’t qualify for the traditional FHA loan.

Selling Your Home For Sale By Owner in Salt Lake County

Tom Winand — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 03:27:15 +0000

I thought I would write a blog to help all the For Sale By Owner selling in Salt Lake. Selling For Sale By Owner or FSBO is something I know a lot about. Ok, I know some of you are rolling your eyes saying this is where the Realtor is going to tell us we have to list to sell because 80% of homes are sold by Realtor’s etc. Maybe and maybe not; it all depends on the market conditions at the current time.

Allow me to give you some credential, I was the nation Real Estate Broker working for ForSaleByOwner.com from May 2005 to May2008. I listed dozens of flat fee listing a month for most of the Watch Front and consulted with national listing agent and customer support problems. Created new programs for ForeSaleByOwner.com to market to seller and buyers and yes sold real estate. For you people keeping score that was during the boom of the real estate flipping era. So I know a little about the For Sale By Owner way of selling. I’ll be honest you can sell your home as a FSBO. In today’s buyers market it harder. It not easy because buyers are looking for the great deals of bank owned and short sales they want a great deal and those two category of homes are being show by Realtor’s only. So buyer tend to become clients of Realtors and end up seeing only listed homes not FSBO homes. I’m sorry that is the nature of the market right now. If it becomes a seller’s market again FSBO will be very effective again. I don’t see that happening anytime soon. Even if they don’t buy a short sale or bank owned home they buy a listed home. So how do you get listed without paying 6%? Now that’s a really great question! That is actually easy it’s a flat fee listing or pay for service listing? You can get your home listed from $99 to $995 full service and chose your buyer agent commission from 0% to 4%. So you could spend $199 and 2.5% buyer’s agent commission and have your home on the MLS thousands of MLS Real Estate company and agenth web sites all for a low fee. If you sell it your self you pay nothing but the one time fee. That is the best way to sell in this market. Selling comes down to marketing exposure and pricing, the more shopper that see your home the more of a chance one will think it’s the best home for the money and they will make an offer. That is it really simple. It’s a beauty pageant and a price war! You have to be priced well, in this price driven buyer market. So you can’t rule out the buyer working with agents, if you want to sell. There may only be only 3 or 4 buyers looking for a home like yours and 3 of them may have agents that are the nature of this market right now. Where do you find a reliable flat fee company? We’ll I’m glad you ask, I have one that I have created it http://www.forsalebyownerhelper.com/ you can place your listing, upload your photo buy a self serve or professionally shot Obeo virtual tour, which is the best tour for tracking the buyers viewing your home. I will post your home on the WFRMLS and syndicating it to most of the major home buyer’s sites. From the $99 limited service listing to the$995 Full services until sold all the bells and whistles listing. If you post a comment on this blog post and enroll in a listing program, I will give you the statistics for your home sold listed and under contract so you can do the # for pricing your home. See the pricing your home posting. Good luck and happy selling!