Sacramento Expert Short Sale Real Estate Agent

Posts Tagged ‘market value’

       Heading Down an Unknown Road!!! 

When making a decision to sell your home without an agent being there to assist you, means that you are also taking on a lot of responsibilities that you are not ready for.  Not using a REALTOR® to help you sell your home can be costly in many ways that you are unaware of.  

 Commissions are negotiable with a broker and not set by law, so why not get the best help you have available to you?  Remember you get what you pay for. You want to be protected at all times when selling a home and this is what Realtors® get the training and experience doing. Realtors® just do not take a class then instantly their a Realtor®. We put tons of time in the field, taking class after class, after class learning regulations and laws which enables us to better serve you the client.  We get paid to give our best client service and protection to both the buyer and seller. Most of us EARN what we get from you the seller.

Here are a few things that you may not think about when it comes to selling your home on your own.

• You will need to be available at all times so that you will not miss out on a good potential buyer, this means 24/7 or at least 12/7. You will have looky loo’s stopping by, calling all the time just to see the inside of your home that are really only interested in seeing it.  Do you really want to trust a bunch of strangers coming through your front door?  Being aware of your surroundings at all times is not a comfortable position to be in.
• You will be paying out of your pocket for all the ads, “FOR SALE” sign to place on the property.  The ads are very costly these days
• You will need to locate all the legal  disclosures and such in the event a buyer wants to present an offer you can not refuse and then know exactly what they all mean. These can sometimes be difficult to understand and you the seller are held liable in the event that you do not disclose everything.
• How would you know if in fact an offer looks good?  Do not just look at the purchase price, as there are other fee’s associated with the selling process of your home. Is the offer presented to you asking for certain things from you the seller are not understanding?  Does the buyer really qualify? Lots of questions will go through your mind. Do you know what to ask in any case? If the offer is coming from a buyer with an agent, do or would you trust that person, as they are representing the buyer.

Now that this is out of the way, let me tell you a few benefits of using a Realtor® that might help you in making a decision.

• You will not need to be available all the time to show the home to potential buyers, as the agent will pre-screen the buyers and show the home for you. The agent uses a lock box that will allow only other agents to have access to your home which can be tracked in the event something might happen. No more sitting around waiting for the knock at the door or awaiting the phone to ring. 
• You will not be paying the costs of advertising your property by placing ads or buying signs.  The agent does this at no cost to you.  The agent ( Realtor ) has a vast amount of resources to market your property.
• You will not need to find any forms to fill out or purchase.  The agent also provides this for you and has the knowledge in knowing what all of this information means to you as the client. The agent is your protection as long as you are honest in your disclosure.  This transaction will also be somewhat protected by the broker representing you.
• The agent will explain the offer to purchase to you and be able to explain the contract in detail to you. Therefore eliminating all your questions and concerns you may have. 

Now this is not to say that many sellers out there have no problems with selling their home by themselves. I am just saying that is the amount you are saving on the commission worth all the headaches, hassles, and most of all your valuable TIME that you never get back?

Please feel free to contact me at anytime with any questions you may have. or feel free to post your comments as I welcome them.

Terri Wisecarver

REALTOR®

Whitman Metropolitan Inc.

Sacramento Real Estate

There are many issues that some agents take into consideration when obtaining or doing Short Sales. One of them is that some agents have never done them so they dont know how to. This comes with changing times in the economy and agents now have to take listings anyway they can. Some agents refuse to do them at all and this includes showing short sales to buyers because of the length of time and effort that goes into them.

This is an example of what I have seen in this market with other agents and the handling of Short Sales.

• I personally have learned to handle them myself because I want to know everything about the discussions with the lien holders. I want to be involved to the point that I know everything is getting done exactly to their demand.  I have learned how to communicate with the banks and know exactly what they require upfront so that when the package and offer is submitted to them it is complete.  This makes the transaction push through the banks hands more efficiently.

• Now do not get me wrong on this point, but there are companies out there that offer a service at a price to handle the paperwork and to do the negotiations with the banks for agents, in order to free them up giving them more time to handle more business.  But sometimes you need to be careful with these companies as they charge a price for this service to the Listing Agent at 20% - 30% of their commission.  I hope that the agents do their clients a good service when choosing these companies, and I can only speak from my own experience on this matter.

When I started doing Short Sales I decided to outsource to a company claiming that they had a 99% acceptance rate with negotiations with the banks.  They made me sign an agreement to to pay them 25% of my commission upon the completion of the transaction.  I decided at this point allow this and provided them with the whole package reequired by the bank to them.  After I had tried to contact them after the offer was submitted to them, they would just state that they were in process of working with the bank.  This went on for months.  Sometimes I could not get a phone call back from them with any updates on my file.  Other times they would say that they were doing all they could and the bank was not cooperating with them.  I told them that I wanted more information as to what the bank (lien holder) was really wanting and that I had concerns as the foreclosure process had already been started on this home.  Needless to say, they did nothing on this file. The home ended up going to foreclosure and I had lost the listing.  The bank ended up getting less than the offer I had submitted at the beginning.

• Now there are other independent people out there that are not even agents doing these negotiations for agents also.  They do not have a license and really do not know real estate at all.  They learn also as they go.  Here is the difference. Again from my own experience of seeing this happen first hand.  It is somewhat similar the the loan modification scams that were and still are going on out there.  Seller Beware.  These independent people would sent out flyer’s offering to help you on a short sale and you would call in and make an appointment to talk with them.  When you get to the appointment to meet with them they also have a Real Estate Agent there to discuss what it is they are offering you.  This independent person states that they charge a fee to YOU the Seller for this service that is to be paid UPFRONT and NON REFUNDABLE for them to handle the paperwork and work with the banks for you.  This money would be about $1500.00 out of your pocket and the agent there would list your home as the short sale. This independent person would then work the paperwork through because they were also working for the agent that listed the property and the agent would also give them money upon the sale of the property.  I believe this is illegal from the agents standpoint as an under the table kickback.

I am not saying that agents do not work well with outsourcing to legitimate companies specializing in working these files, I am  just saying that I myself rather work harder for the seller that is in trouble and needs to sell the home, than to pay someone else to do it for me and not know what is going on.  This is my decision only as I feel I am giving my seller the best possible service I can provide.  Make your decisions to sell your home as a short sale based on what is offered to you by the agent to ensure that everything will be carried out the way that will benefit you.

If I can be any kind of kind of assistance to you by answering any questions, please  feel free to contact me at anytime.

Terri Wisecarver

REALTOR

Sacramento Real Estate

REALTOR

I never thought I would be talking about this subject as this also pertains to my home, and how depressing it is an can be for other sellers.  Selling real estate in Sacramento I have seen so many changes in the last 5 yrs of owning my home. I purchased low, 2 yrs later prices were climbing, 3 yr climbing more, then boom.  Now the prices are below the price I paid for my home.  I did exactly what everyone told me not to do in regards to upgrading, updating and basically making my home all that I wanted it to be.  I thought that my home would give back to me, but I was wrong.  I have learned that no matter what market you are in at the time, that your home will only bring  you what the market value is from a buyers eyes.

No matter what we think, what we do, what we want, we will only get what the market and buyer are willing to pay for the property.  Sure you might get a bit (tiny bid) more for the extra appeal you have added to the property, but you will not get back what you have put into the property.  If you sellers out there are trying to hold out on getting a higher price then you could end up loosing for in the long run. 

You can not argue with what the market says your home is worth.  The buyers make up the market, and market is the value.   So if you are truly considering selling your home then you need to be open for either adjusting your prices as time goes by in order to sell the property or do not list the home for sale at all.  With that said, I would suggest you obtain a good agent  that is willing to help you with the pricing of your home and listen to the market.

Terri

Your local sacramento REALTOR®