Sacramento Expert Short Sale Real Estate Agent

Posts Tagged ‘property’

Well another happy seller and buyer on this one.  Buyers happy to get their new home right before the holidays. I wanted  to mention that when working short sales on the buyer or seller side how important it is to know what you are doing.  This situation could of been a problem from the beginning as there were tenants on in the property. 

 Making sure the tenants were going to be prior to closing the deal is very important to a buyer, as they will then become the landlord to these tenants after recording the sale. This could be a deal breaker to the buyers especially if they wanted to occupy the property. The lien holder on a short sale does not care about tenants on the property, they only care about closing the deal according to their acceptance of the short sale. 

I have heard from so many people that Realtors here in Sacramento do not, or are not willing to show a short sale or even list one.  Their loss was my gain on this one.  Realtors better change with the times or their business will not get any better for them.

So when your trying to sell or buy a short sale with tenants on the property make sure that the seller has given proper notice to the tenants to vacate the property, or worked out a settlement prior to closing in writing and have a back up plan in place.

Make sure the buyers are in complete understanding of what could happen in a worse case scenario which affects their ability to buy or delay moving into their new home.

In this case everything worked out great for both sides, although there were some rough area’s of concerns.  It did come down to a legal document being drawn up to get the tenants out prior to closing.  The tenants moved out 2 days prior to closing. Too close for comfort. Every Realtor needs to protect their clients best interest. Know all the facts and present this information upfront.

Terri Wisecarver

Sacramento Real Estate

twre.info@gmail.com

www.twre.info

       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

A down hill spiral is inevitable, therefore I often have a lot of sellers asking me whom pays the back taxes I owe, and do I have to pay for you to sell my home as a Short Sale??   Of course I then begin a conversation that will hopefully give the seller more knowledge in which to base a decision on selling the home or just walking away from the mortgage.

There are of course many people that make money on the sale of a Short Sale, just like they would if anyone else was buying or selling a home.  But in the case of a Short Sale the seller does not pay the commissions, or back taxes.  Sellers are always concerned about if they are having to come up with any money at the close of escrow. At the time of the listing agreement I do ask my sellers if they owe for delinquent water,sewer and garbage because the lien holder will not pay this at closing. If it is a large amount this could be an issue. I always ask the seller to keep the utilities on because it is hard to sell property if nothing is on. This also helps when the buyer goes to do their inspections, as they will need to test the water and electric.

Everyone that is involved in the sale of any property or home will make money somehow. 

• Listing Agent, Buyer’s Agent
• The Current Lender ( They avoid the high cost of the foreclosure process )
• Title Companies ( Title Insurance for the seller and buyer)
• The buyers new Lender ( generates new interest income )
• Appraiser’s ( required by the new lender )
• Homeowner Insurance Company ( required by the lender to protect the property )
• Tax Consultants or Attorney’s ( legal advise and tax consultations )
• Buyer ( purchased the home somewhat below market value therefore gaining equity )
• Escrow Company ( processing the legal paperwork )

If you have any questions regarding the possibility of selling your home because you can not make the payments or you have a financial hardship, please contact me and I can hopefully be able to answer any questions you might have.

It never hurts to ask, it only hurts you when you don’t have all the facts or answers you were needing and wish you did.

Terri Wisecarver

Whitman Metropolitan Inc.

Sacramento Real Estate

BPO is an acronym for Broker’s Price Opinion.  In general, the term Broker’s Price Opinion (BPO) is a method that a Real Estate Broker (or an agent acting on behalf of their employing broker) uses to estimate the probable selling price of a Real Estate property/house.  This estimate is submitted in a report to the BPO Company that has ordered it. This basically is information of  properties that compare to the (subject) house that is being priced.  This is similar to a CMA that an agent would provide a seller to show the approximate value of their property.

These are done for numerous reasons, but I would like to tell you how they would play into a role of doing a Short Sale.  When taking a listing of a Short Sale there are many factors that play a role in the process of getting the bank to accept a short sale at all.  With that said you have listed the property for sale, received the whole hardship package from the seller, and submitted this package including an offer to purchase to the lender for approval.

The lien holder (bank) will then look over the package to make sure everything is complete, and then they will secure an agent or broker, an place an order to obtain a BPO on the property.  Basically the bank just wants to see the market value of the property and the condition the property is in.  This gives them some kind of idea if the offer submitted is really a good one compared to the BPO, and how much their bottom line will be.

Example:

• Home loan owed on a home is $700,000
• Listed the home as a Short Sale for $600,00
• Offer submitted to the bank of $600,000
• Bank orders a BPO to be done
• BPO comes in at an approximate value of  $640,000

 The bank now has a higher value than the offer, and this gives them great information on how to proceed with the offer.  They have a choice of doing a few things at this point

• They can accept the offer presented to them
• They can counter the offer
• They can reject the offer
• They can refuse to allow a Short Sale

Having done BPO’s  myself I now have a better understanding of a banks position.  If you have any questions about buying, selling real estate in Sacramento, please feel free to contact me anytime.

Terri Wisecarver 

REALTOR

Sacramento Real Estate