Entries from Searchlight Crusade tagged with 'practices'
Transaction Coordinator: For The Agent's Benefit, Not The Consumers
The last few years, real estate agents and brokerages have begun charging a transaction coordination fee in addition to whatever their share of the sales commission was. The purpose of this is to pay a transaction coordinator, so your...
Military Housing Allowance and Loan Qualification
One of the things that is really helping military families afford good properties is the military housing allowance and the way that lenders treat it, making it much easier for them to qualify with regards to debt to income...
Agents Refusing to Make an Offer on Real Estate
"buyers agent refuses to make offer" was a search hit I got recently. This is yet another reason not to sign exclusive buyer's agent agreements. My hypothesis - and based upon experience it's pretty strong - is that the CBB...
Find An Agent With Enough Time To Devote To Selling YOUR Property
Not very long ago, the purchase market in many areas of San Diego went through a phase that could only be described as "piranha feeding frenzy". This sort of market reinforces several pieces of advice I have given here....
The Qualification Letter I Use for My Buyers and Require For My Listings
I have never had someone tell me they wanted more information than this letter provides. I also require the prospective loan officer to fill if out for prospective purchasers of my occasional listings. DELETED (Mortgage Corporation) Address DELETED City...
RESPA Forbids Steering - Even "Just For Prequalification"
Agents rationalize this in all sorts of interesting ways, so let's just start by quoting the cold hard federal law. It's pretty damned clear: RESPA no person shall give and no person shall accept any fee, kickback, or thing of...
Buyer's Agents Presenting An Offer In Person
This is a right given to buyers agents by my local MLS, and it's a good one, that I like to take advantage of whenever it is practical. The actual property owner - not the listing agent - does have...
Cash to Close - A Basic Primer
Cash to close has always been an underwriting standard, but more people are running into it as a reason why they cannot buy that property, why their buyers cannot perform, and why they can't get that refinance approved. With...
If You Need A Loan To Buy A Home, You Need A 60 Day Escrow
Minimum Time was, a few short years ago, when I could reliably do a purchase money loan in two and a half weeks. That has now changed. There are three separate delays of one to two weeks that have been...
Advertising a Sold Property As Available on MLS
This really ticks me off. I just got done going around about this with a clueless Realtor. According to them, it's not available. It's simply pending contract signatures. But it's showing as "Active" in MLS. This is not a minor...
The Return of Portfolio Lending
For a long time, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had a policy that they would not fund investment property (non-owner occupied) beyond 10 loans for a given investor. Although it did impact a certain number of investors, for most folks...
There Are No Schools That Teach What A Good Agent Needs to Know
I find it fascinating the number of people who will claim that because no college degree is required to become a real estate agent, that agents can't possibly be worth any significant amount of money. The reason no college...
What Does Escrow Do?
This is a question that gets asked a lot. Escrow is nothing more or less than a neutral third party that stands in the middle of a real estate transaction and makes certain all of the i's are dotted and...
Pocket Listings: Out of Sight, Out of Mind
Every so often, you will see references to a "pocket" listing. These are usually bad for owners, and usually bad for buyers, but good for agents. A "pocket listing" is one where there agent keeps the listing "in his pocket"...
Can They Force You To Pay Off Your Car or Other Debts In Order To Get A Loan?
The short answer is not only "yes" but "damned straight" I refinanced my house, and the lender put as one of my payoffs my Acura lease that I have 3 years left, whick equals about $19,000. I told him that...
Conforming and Jumbo Only Apply to "A Paper" Conventional Financing
This is something that many folks don't understand about the loan market. The labels "conforming", "jumbo" or, more accurately, "non-conforming" (and "temporary conforming" when we had it) only apply to so-called "A paper" loans, largely underwritten through Fannie Mae...
Real Estate Purchase Negotiability
What's negotiable on a purchase? The short answer is everything. There may be standards and traditions in your area, whether they're the same in your area as there are in mine or quite different. That doesn't mean they are...
What Happens To Equity During and After Foreclosure?
"what happens to your equity when the bank forecloses" was a question I got. The answer is that most, if not all, will be dissipated by the foreclosure. Let's say you own a home currently valued at $500,000, that you...
Real Estate "Pig In a Poke"
Over five hundred years ago in Europe, there was a con game that was more practiced than any other con game in the history of the world. It was simply the thing to try on the new rube in...
Is The Good Faith Deposit At Risk?
Many agents seem to answer this question differently depending upon whether their client is the prospective buyer or seller, according to what they think will make the client most comfortable. When their client is making an offer, "No, your...
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