Entries from Searchlight Crusade tagged with 'strategy'
Should You Pay Off Your Mortgage Faster?
I have to admit to being conflicted. The numbers say no. The psychology says yes. Let's examine both. Most first mortgages out there are between six and seven percent, and tax deductible at a marginal rate of about 28%. If...
How to Effectively Shop for a Buyer's Agent
This is easy. Much easier than effectively shopping for a loan or a listing agent. So easy that a congresscritter can do it. So easy that congressional leadership can do it. The only thing possibly moderately difficult to understand is...
Listing Agreements: Exclusive Right to Sell Versus Exclusive Agency
There are actually several different kinds of listing agreements. They get their names from the rights conferred when you sign the contract. The vast majority of agreements concluded are either Exclusive Right to Sell or Exclusive Agency. Exclusive Right To...
Negotiation Requires More Than Dueling Ultimatums
Not too long ago, I started negotiating for a property. I did extensive research online, and and I and my clients visited several competing properties. We made an offer that was a little under 90% of the asking price, 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"...
"All of the Good Properties Get Offers So Fast!"
That's way up there on the list of complaints buyer's agents get. Probably number one, definitely no lower than number three, and it's only going to get worse when the markets recover. There's really only one honest response: "Well,...
Desperation Mining: How a Buyer Hits Paydirt (and How Sellers Can Avoid it)
One of my favorite blogs ran a picture of a listing sign that included the caption "REDUCED But Not Stupid or Desperate". I beg to differ on the former. On the latter, time will tell. Most successful real estate investors...
The High Cost of Waiting To Buy A Home
(Note: This is a repeat and 100% financing is not currently available unless you are one of those with a VA loan available to you - but the article is still valid for those who have the required down payment...
Save For A Down Payment or Buy Now? (Part 1 of 2)
An email asked a question I should have thought to answer a long time ago, and the answer may surprise a lot of folks. I've been vaguely aware of this for a couple of years, but I was amazed how...
Buy Now vs. Wait: Some Practical Hypotheticals
The original appeared in April 2006, but has been updated for changes I am hoping to buy in the (city) area and am reviewing the possibilities. While I fear that the local market may be peaking, I intend to live...
Top Ten Reasons You Bought The Wrong House
A while ago, I wrote Top Ten Reasons Your Home Isn't Selling. It was well received so I thought I'd take it from the buyer's perspective. Once again, I'll try to inject as much humor as I can. And...
Agents "Buying" Listings: Promising the Undeliverable and Hurting Their Clients
Quite a lot of the time when I view a property, I get requests for feedback. Usually it's an automated email. Other times, it's some office assistant who wants to fax me a form which will "only take a...
Unsustainable Loans You Should Not Use to Purchase a Property
You've probably heard the horror stories, and I've mentioned the possibility more than once. Some unsuspecting person is looking at properties beyond their price range, and it therefore has all kinds of attractive features that properties which are in their...
Why Buyers and Refinancers Should Think About a 5/1 ARM
Right now, due to the problems we had with unsustainable loans, nobody wants to consider anything but a thirty year fixed rate loan. I understand why, especially as I've been preaching the dangers of things like short term adjustable...
How to Use Internet Based Real Estate and House Hunting Sites
As with anything you find on the internet, the critical thing to keep in mind with internet real estate is that it is subject to input control. In plain English, you only see what they want you to see....
Shop Loans By The Bottom Line To You, Not By What the Provider Makes
When it comes to mortgage loans, people get distracted by the darnedest things. Let's look at Wal-Mart. You think they got to be the largest retailer in the world by making less money than their competition? I assure you...
A Good Listing Agent's Most Difficult Task
The general public may not understand this, but the most critical parts of a listing agent's job all take place before the property hits the market. The most difficult task of an agent who wants to successfully list property is...
Ill-Considered Real Estate Offers and Contracts
There's an old literary tradition that cautions the reader to "Be careful what you ask for. You may get it." Many real estate purchase offers are good illustrations of that principle. The rule followed by good agents is, "Never...
Writing Real Estate Purchase Offers to Beat Higher Competing Offers
This article was inspired by closing one of many transactions where my clients did not make the high bid (or even close), but did get the fully negotiated purchase contract and the property. By building an airtight case that...
What is Reasonable Loan Officer Compensation?
I get people asking me about how much their mortgage loan providers make, usually with an idea towards negotiating it down but often with the idea of choosing one loan or the other based upon the loan officer's compensation. This...
Sixty Second Public Service Announcement About Selling Real Estate
Here was an idea I had: Pack a list of the most important things consumers need to know about buying real estate, as packed into the words I can say in sixty seconds without sounding like an over-clocked squirrel. Here...
Why Buyers Should Avoid Short Sales
I've been saying this for a long time: Short sales are poison for buyers. I don't know why people encourage buyers to look at short sales, because there is no advantage for buyers that I am aware of. In...
Real Estate: Giving Someone a Monopoly Does Not Encourage Top Performance
From an e-mail I've been talking to agents lately and I ask them about the things I've learned about from your site. I thought I would say things like "I want to apply for a backup loan" and they would...
Real Estate: Know What Can Be Fixed and What Can't, What's Profitable and What Isn't
It's a well known fact that not all factors in real estate are equally important, and not all property investments perform equally well. A critical part of successfully choosing the right property, whether it's for investment or personal use, lies...
My Sixty Second Public Service Announcement about Buying Real Estate
Here was an idea I had: Pack a list of the most important things consumers need to know about buying real estate, as packed into the words I can say in sixty seconds without sounding like an over-clocked squirrel. Here...
Selling In Buyer's Markets: Do You Need to Sell Or Are You Part of The Problem?
One of the things that sticks out about buyer's markets is that there are two sorts of listings: Those who are willing to do whatever it takes, anything it takes, to get the property sold, and the other who apparently...
The Ideal Listing Commission and its Structure: Performance Based
Here's the real issue about commissions: They need to be structured to incentivize good results - rewarding those agents who do good work, penalizing those who don't. The current structure, where the brokerage gets a flat percentage of official...
Selling to Avoid Foreclosure in a Buyer's Market
Found this on a public forum I need help to stop foreclosure on my home. I need to sell quickly? I am a couple months behind on my payments and want to sell now. I am not looking to make...
The Difference Between Note Rate (APY) and APR
I am continually horrified how many people shop their loans by APR, just as I am by people shopping their loan based upon payment. Why? Because in either case, you're setting yourself up to spend a lot of money in...
CBB: The Art of Setting Buyer's Agency Compensation on a Listing
First off, let me make something very plain. All a CBB (Cooperating Buyer's Broker compensation) can do is give good agent an incentive or disincentive to look at the property. A high one will not, by itself, sell the...
Finding Bargain Real Estate: Work With the Buyer's Agent Who Actually Finds The Bargain!
Several times a month I get calls and emails. Sometimes, it's even people stopping in. "I've heard you're good at finding bargains." Well, yes I am. "Please tell me the addresses of some bargains so I can drive by."...
The Perfect Time To Buy Real Estate
There is no such thing as the perfect time to buy. The perfect time to buy would mean that you have all kinds of leverage, and can make sellers give you pretty much the deal you want, but prices are...
Real Estate and the Four Levels of Competence
People who talk about learning skills tend to discuss a model for learning called the conscious competence learning model. It starts with unconscious incompetence. You not only don't know how to do something, you don't realize that it is...
Buyers Who Don't Want A Buyer's Agent
You see it all the time at open houses and elsewhere. People who desperately need buyer's agents, but think of Buyer's Agents in the same way they think of automobile sales folk, and that's the complete opposite of the way...
Changing Rates and Streamline Refinancing - Reasons to Love Zero Cost Loans and Hybrid ARMs
(NOTE: AT this update, laws exist enacted in the latter part of the previous congressional session that essentially outlaw zero cost and low cost loans by outlawing yield spread. If you can't make yield spread, you can't use yield...
Real Estate Liquidation Auctions
Liquidation auctions were a big thing for a while there. They were just advertising one on all the stations around here. The other agents in my office asked if I was going, and I told them, "There will be...
Differences Between Loans Look Smaller Than They Are
One of the things I keep getting told by people is that my loans are the same as everybody else's. When I originally wrote this, I had quoted a 5.625% with no points, and got told, "That's the same rate...
In Order To Deal With Looming Foreclosure, You Must Get Out of Denial
A while ago, I got a call from a hard money lender, asking what I could to to "rescue" one of his clients by refinancing. He was being about as altruistic as a drowning man. What he really wanted...
Buyer's Agency, Due Diligence, and the Illusion of Comity
Somebody sent me this story via e-mail: Feeling Misled on Home Price, Buyers Sue Agent Marty Ummel feels she paid too much for her house. So do millions of other people who bought at the peak of the housing...
How Can Buyers Get the Lowest Possible Price on the Best Possible Property?
The first piece of advice I have for buyers who want to get a fantastic bargain is to find a good buyer's agent (this guy is one of the best in San Diego County). Nothing else will make as...
Why You Shouldn't Have All Your Money In Real Estate
Is there any problems with having all your money in only real estate? That was a question I saw. The answer is YES there are problems! 1) No diversification. The real estate market tanks, like it has right now,...
How to Sell Your Home Quickly and For The Best Possible Price
There's really nothing mysterious about this. There are some subsidiary tricks and issues, but the most important thing is obvious. The economic games theory is crystal clear, as is the research into what really happens. But most people don't like...
Buyer's Markets: Time for Listing Agents To Earn Their Money
One of the most common things I'm seeing as I roam about the East County looking for bargains: Agents not doing their jobs. Even when there were 40-plus sellers per buyer, single family detached homes that are priced appropriately were...
The Future of Real Estate Agency is Expert Consultants, Not Controlling Market Access
Expertise and attitude, not control of an informational chokepoint, is the way that things are going. Let's analyze this from both sides of the problem. The current owner looking to sell really needs a marketer. For better or worse, most...
Buyer's Markets Are A Great Time For Moving Up
I have said repeatedly that buyer's markets are not the time to be selling a property if you have any choice. There is one exception: People looking to turn around and buy a more expensive property. It's still better if...
Full Service Agent For Discount Price? Demand Specifics!
There is no such thing as a free lunch, but lots of people will pretend there is. It seems to me that many people consider compensation earned by real estate agents as paying some kind of toll. They think of...
Dual Agency: Using the Seller's Agent as Your Buyer's Agent
Is it unwise to use the listing realtor as your purchase realtor? A house I'm interested in purchasing is being sold by the realtor selling my house. Although she's done a decent job selling my house, I fear she...
Should I Buy A Home? Part 3: Consequences
Continued from Part 1: Preparation and "target="_blank">Part 2: Process This is about the long term consequences of the decision to buy or not to buy a home, and economic benefits analysis into whether you should want to buy. In order...
Should I Buy A Home? Part 2: Process
Continued from Part 1: Preparation I am considering buying a home, although I have not made up my mind on the subject. This is not due to indecision, but rather due to a lack of necessary information. There are many...
Two Things Sellers Need To Understand About Buyers
There's an old saying in sales: "The best way to achieve your dreams is to help others achieve theirs". I wasn't able to run it down to the original attribution, but it is as true a saying as can...
Nightmare Mortgages and Self-Destructive Behavior
This article started another one of those desperate consumer fishing calls a while ago. Loan standards have tightened since then (In my considered opinion, over-tightened and the lenders and Wall Street will figure it out within a couple years). Stated...
Can You Keep Your Home Through Bankruptcy?
The answer is "Yes." You don't have to lose your home in bankruptcy. I've done loans for many clients who kept their homes through bankruptcy. But they kept their mortgage payments current, or close enough to current. The condition...
Flipping vs Fixing vs Investing
I get occasional questions about the difference between these three kinds of activity. Well, there are subjective parts to the answer, but here are some general guidelines: A true flipper is looking for a quick turn on the property, usually...
Lender Paid Mortgage Insurance or Regular PMI?
If I am buying a foreclosed home for 220k of which 200k is being financed, and the home comes back at being valued at 285k from my mortgage company, am I still required to pay PMI? If so, how in...
Mortgage Transaction Case Study
Note: This article was originally published November 2007, when rates were higher than currently I had been corresponding irregularly with this gentleman during his hunt. It happens he lives outside of California, and I only work inside California, so...
Working with Multiple Agents While Searching for a Purchase
If you have three real estate companies sending you emails with multi-listings, if you want to see one of the properties, who gets the commission? There five properties that I want to see the inside of the houses. Company A,...
How To Keep Listing Agents From Filtering Out Offers
This is a real, major and pervasive problem in the industry. For a while, it mostly went away as listing agents were desperate for any offer, but it has come back. At least two properties my buyer clients have...
When Selling, You Need To Understand Your Target Market
One of the hard things to get through to sellers is to understand the characteristics of the sort of buyers they need in order to have a successful transaction. If a given set of prospective buyers can't afford the property,...
Where Would I Invest A Million Dollars?
Somebody asked me that. Well, I'd want to set some aside for liquidity and reserves, in case something happened where I needed money now. invest those funds in a diversified mutual fund and money market portfolio. Once that's done, I'd...
Bridge Loans
One of the things I'm seeing a lot of these days is blanket advice on bridge loans. A bridge loan is a loan that you take out with the explicit intention of having it be short term. The most common...
Segmented Real Estate Markets And Taking Advantage of Them
Market segmentation is what happens when certain things are much more in demand than others. For instance in the hot market brought on by the tax credit of 2009, the central area of San Diego was in high demand,...
Economics of Housing in High Density Areas
Here are the facts of the situation, whether you're talking about San Diego or Manhattan, the Bay Area, Los Angeles, or any of the other densely packed, high cost areas where all the employment and career opportunities are. Fact 1:...
When You Should Not Buy Real Estate
Okay, I did an article called Why Renting Really Is For Suckers (And What To Do About It). Fairness demands that I do a companion article on situations where buying is not a good idea. There actually are some. First...
I'm Competing Against Multiple Offers. How Do I Proceed?
The first thing to consider is that maybe you shouldn't. You never want to get involved in a bidding war. There's a classic riddle I ask every single one of my buyer clients at least once. "How often does...
Why the Real Estate Buyers Agent's Commission is Paid by the Seller
I have to admit I'm uncomfortable with it and don't like it. As a buyer's agent, here I am getting paid by someone who not only is not my client, but whose interests are aligned, in most issues, opposite to...
You Want an Agency That Can Pay ENOUGH Attention to YOU
A lot of advice gets given to choose a "top producing" agent. These highly corporate offices may have the name of an individual agent attached to them, but they are in fact transaction mills. They have done pretty well for...
Low Equity (or Worse!) Relocations in a Buyer's Market
Hi, Dan! I just came across your website and you strike me as the type of guy who has answers for our situation: My husband and I built our home 2.5 years ago. We took out a second mortgage...
Saving Money by Refinancing Your Mortgage
pfadvice talks about debunking a money myth and perpetuates one of his own. He took issue with someone refinancing to lower their monthly payment, insisting instead that the term of the loan was all important. His point is understandable in...
Will Agents List My Property if I Owe More Than It's Worth?
The answer is yes. This situation is called a short sale. As with everything else pertaining to real estate, there are potential upsides and downsides. First of all, lenders in short sale situations often demand agents reduce their commission, so...
What Do Buyer's Agents Do?
Got this search: "should I get a buyer's agent if I've already found a house" The answer is almost certainly yes, but I am going to examine both the pros and cons. Full disclosure: This is what I do for...
Listing Agents Claiming There Are Multiple Offers
Once upon a time, this was a good way to get more money for your listing. This led to a classic tragedy of the commons. Because it didn't take hardly any extra time, and there was no reason not to...
Buyer's Markets
One of the phenomena that I am encountering is fear of the market in buyers. They are concerned that prices are falling, and that they will lose some or all of their investment if they buy. Well, the first...
Buyers: Stretching Your Budget Means Compromise
As a good buyer's agent, I love a challenge. When someone comes to me trying to make a budget stretch just a little bit further than it would usually go, that's the kind of client I love to have....
Top Twelve Things That Help You Buy Property At A Bargain Price
Quite a while ago, I wrote Top Ten Reasons You Bought The Wrong House and Top Ten Reasons Your Home Isn't Selling. In that vein, I'm going to write a list of the most important things when you're shopping for...
Online Real Estate Photographs - You Have Heard of Photoshop?
When Israel invaded southern Lebanon a few years ago, this picture from Reuters ran worldwide The problem was that it was heavily photoshopped by a Palestinian stringer trying to make it appear like the Israelis were setting the entire...
Considering Condos, Townhomes, and PUDs
The vast majority of the population out there wants single family detached housing. The virtues and benefits of the single family residence have been extolled ad nauseum, and the drawbacks of the alternatives are the stuff of urban legend. Unfortunately,...
Lipstick on a Pig: Selling the Property You Should Never Have Bought
Lots of properties have some kind of problem with them. Maybe you bought in full recognizance because of something else about the property, but probably not. Mostly it's directly a result of not spending the effort to find a good...
Properties With Accepted Contracts Aren't Available
This is one of the hardest things to get across to many people - agents included. A property with a fully negotiated purchase contract is not one you can buy. They have a legal agreement binding them to sell it...
Buyer's Basic Guide to The Foreclosure Process and REOs
I've written articles on when you can't make your mortgage payment and how to react if you see foreclosure coming in time to do something about it, and even on Short Payoffs, but all of those are owner (seller) oriented....
Why Do I Want A Buyer's Agent?
Got this search: "should I get a buyer's agent if I've already found a house" The answer is almost certainly yes, but I am going to examine both the pros and cons. Full disclosure: This is what I do for...
How to Effectively Shop For A Listing Agent (Part II)
Continued from Part I Interview lots of agents. Once again, my experience is that the agents at small independent brokerages tend to be sharper than the ones at large chains, but that's only true in the aggregate, and the large...
How to Effectively Shop For A Listing Agent (Part I)
This is the final article in this series, and the most difficult. The reason is very simple: Unlike shopping for buyer's agents or shopping for loans, you have to make a binding choice - it is in your best interest...
How to Succeed at Low Balling on Real Estate
A while ago now, I spent several hours showing properties I had found to a couple of investors. One was a lender owned fixer, fairly priced at $440k. It needed carpet, paint, landscaping, and some facade work. The last comparable...
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"...
Two Things Sellers Need To Understand About Buyers
There's an old saying in sales: "The best way to achieve your dreams is to help others achieve theirs". I wasn't able to run it down to the original attribution, but it is as true a saying as can...
How To Keep Listing Agents From Filtering Out Offers
This is a real, major and pervasive problem in the industry. For a while, it mostly went away as listing agents were desperate for any offer, but it has come back in recent months. At least two properties my...
Segmented Real Estate Markets And Taking Advantage of Them
I've been saying that the San Diego area real estate market has suddenly gone white hot. Multiple offers are the order of the day with most properties. I really need to make a distinction here: That's not the way...
I'm Competing Against Multiple Offers. How Do I Proceed?
The first thing to consider is that maybe you shouldn't. You never want to get involved in a bidding war. There's a classic riddle I ask every single one of my buyer clients at least once. "How often does...
You Want an Agency That Can Pay ENOUGH Attention to YOU
A lot of advice gets given to choose a "top producing" agent. These highly corporate offices may have the name of an individual agent attached to them, but they are in fact transaction mills. They have done pretty well for...
Buyers: Stretching Your Budget Means Compromise
As a good buyer's agent, I love a challenge. When someone comes to me trying to make a budget stretch just a little bit further than it would usually go, that's the kind of client I love to have....
Top Twelve Things That Help You Buy a Bargain Property
Quite a while ago, I wrote Top Ten Reasons You Bought The Wrong House and Top Ten Reasons Your Home Isn't Selling. In that vein, I'm going to write a list of the most important things when you're shopping for...
Online Real Estate Photographs
When Israel invaded southern Lebanon a couple years ago, this picture from Reuters ran worldwide The problem was that it was heavily photoshopped by a Palestinian stringer trying to make it appear like the Israelis were setting the entire...
Lipstick on a Pig: Selling the Property You Should Never Have Bought
Lots of properties have some kind of problem with them. Maybe you bought in full recognizance because of something else about the property, but probably not. Mostly it's directly a result of not spending the effort to find a good...
Games with Mortgage Loan Rate Locks (Games Lenders Play Part 10)
From an email: Our rate was locked (on our mortgage broker's recommendation) on December 4 at 5.375% for 30 days. On December 18 we finally received the rate lock form, which was dated December 17 (the prevailing rate was...
Jumbo Loans and The Current Market (January 2009)
One of the salient facts of the current loan market is the fact that pretty much nobody is offering "jumbo" loans at anything like a "par" rate One of the saving graces is that this is a lot less...
How Loan Modification Benefits The Real Estate Markets
Okay, I'm excited about this subject, which is why two articles back to back on Mortgage Loan Modification. There's a reason. For the first time ever, I am getting access to a tool that will enable me to keep sixty...
Negotiation Requires More Than Dueling Ultimatums
Not too long ago, I started negotiating for a property. I did extensive research online, and and I and my clients visited several competing properties. We made an offer that was a little under 90% of the asking price, and...
Desperation Mining: How a Buyer Hits Paydirt (and How Sellers Can Avoid it)
I had actually started writing this last month, but one of my favorite blogs just ran a picture of a listing sign that included the caption "REDUCED But Not Stupid or Desperate". I beg to differ on the former....
Top Ten Reasons You Bought The Wrong House
About a month ago, I wrote Top Ten Reasons Your Home Isn't Selling. It was well received so I thought I'd take it from the buyer's perspective. Once again, I'll try to inject as much humor as I can....
Agents "Buying" Listings: Promising the Undeliverable and Hurting Their Clients
Quite a lot of the time when I view a property, I get requests for feedback. Usually it's an automated email. Other times, it's some office assistant who wants to fax me a form which will "only take a...
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