Entries from Dan Melson's La Mesa Real Estate and Mortgage Website tagged with 'strategy'
New Consumer Article: Two Things Sellers Need To Understand About Buyers
The new consumer article for today is Two Things Sellers Need To Understand About Buyers, a discussion of two things both important and basic that sellers do not seem to understand about buyers, and judging by the available evidence, most...
New Consumer Article: How To Keep Listing Agents From Filtering Out Offers
The new consumer article for today is How To Keep Listing Agents From Filtering Out Offers. This is a real, major, and once again increasing problem within the real estate industry. You need to take steps to prevent it from...
New Consumer Article: Segmented Real Estate Markets And Taking Advantage of Them
The new consumer article for today is Segmented Real Estate Markets And Taking Advantage of Them. I've written about how hot the current market is in San Diego. But if you break it down into market segments and micro...
New Consumer Article: I'm Competing Against Multiple Offers. How Do I Proceed?
The new consumer article for today is I'm Competing Against Multiple Offers. How Do I Proceed?. It's an article directed at consumers, not real estate professionals, so it doesn't go over some things such as alternatives to money that are...
New Consumer Article: You Want an Agency That Can Pay ENOUGH Attention to YOU
The new consumer article for today is You Want an Agency That Can Pay ENOUGH Attention to YOU. It really doesn't benefit you to list with an agency that is too busy to pay proper attention to your property, nor...
New Consumer Article: Stretching Your Budget Means Compromise
The new consumer article for today is Buyers: Stretching Your Budget Means Compromise. It's something too rarely covered by the press, and by real estate agents. There are tradeoffs in every choice a buyer makes, and unless they have a...
New Consumer Article: Top Twelve Things That Help You Buy a Bargain Property
The new consumer article for today is Top Twelve Things That Help You Buy a Bargain Property. If you're looking to buy a good property at a bargain price, put as many of these on your side as possible....
New Consumer Article: Online Real Estate Photographs
The new consumer article for today is Online Real Estate Photographs. I know why people want to see online photographs, but I don't understand why they obsess about them to the degree they do, even after they assure me that...
New Consumer Article: Selling the Property You Should Never Have Bought
The new consumer article for today is Lipstick on a Pig: Selling the Property You Should Never Have Bought. It talks about general techniques for selling properties with issues that make them less attractive to buyers....
New Consumer Article: Games with Mortgage Loan Rate Locks (Games Lenders Play Part 10)
The new consumer article for today is Games with Mortgage Loan Rate Locks (Games Lenders Play Part 10), talking about how you can be told your rate is locked when it isn't, what the benefits of playing this game are...
New Consumer Article: Jumbo Loans and The Current Market (January 2009)
The new consumer article for today is Jumbo Loans and The Current Market (January 2009). There is always a tradeoff between rate and cost on mortgage loans, but lenders vary exactly what that tradeoff is in order to suit their...
New Consumer Article: How Loan Modification Benefits The Real Estate Markets
Today's new consumer article is How Loan Modification Benefits The Real Estate Markets, in which I discuss the benefits that everyone, even those who aren't in trouble, get out of the loan modification program. A lot of people get upset...
New Consumer Article September 8, 2008
Today's new consumer article is Negotiation Requires More Than Dueling Ultimatums, which discusses and suggests improvements to the common model of faxing over bare offers and counter-offers. I don't understand why anyone who wants a transaction to succeed would do...
Updated Consumer Article July 16th, 2008
Today's is only an update of a previously written article - but it's an update of one of the most important articles I've ever done, The High Cost of Waiting To Buy A Home. This article looks strictly at...
New Consumer Article July 14, 2008
Today's new consumer article is If You Don't Think Agents Are Valuable, Do It Yourself, which discusses people trying to get real estate agents to do our core work for free, and how what their actions say overshadows whatever...
Demands Listing Agents Make That Aren't in Their Clients Best Interest
One of the things I see all the time is notations made on the listing that demotivate buyers agents, or give them a reason not to show the property. This practice has had a drastic fall off of late, with...
Real Estate: Getting From Where You Are To Where You Want To Be
When I'm driving, and get to busy main streets, I hate turning left unless there's a light there. Traffic is coming hard both ways, usually at high speeds, and with only intermittent breaks in each direction. If you're turning left,...
Stupid Negotiating Tricks: Appeal to Pity (or Falling for Appeal to Pity)
A few days ago, another agent in my office got an offer and brought it to me for feedback. The listing was range priced over a $30k range, and priced correctly, so there was a lot of activity on it....
The High Cost of Waiting To Buy A Home
A couple of weeks ago, I got an email asking Save For A Down Payment or Buy Now?, and I wrote a two part article on the subject. Part 2 of Save For A Down Payment or Buy Now? Gave...
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....
Save For A Down Payment or Buy Now? (Part 2 of 2)
(click for Part 1 of Save For A Down Payment or Buy Now?, which deals with the basic question of how well saving for a down payment increases affordability) But suppose, instead of waiting because you can't afford the payments...
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...
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...
Buying or Selling Subject to Existing Deeds of Trust
This is something that often happens with highly appreciated properties where the owner can no longer keep up the payments, they get hit with a notice of default, and along comes Joe or Jane seemingly riding to the rescue on...
You Are Never Obligated To Sell to a Given Offer
Must you sell if you list at a specific price and the broker comes up with a qualified buyer? in the US in general, no you do not have to sell, but you could still be liable to the...
Mortgage Lenders Don't Want to Compete on Price
Yet that is exactly what you want them to do. To avoid competing on price, they have all kinds of distractions they offer to make life more convenient, but not cheaper. They offer automatic payment options, the convenience of having...
What Happens When You Over-Price Real Estate?
Short answer: It almost certainly won't sell! The first thing that happens is that when it goes onto the Multiple Listing Service, all the agents who see it know that it's overpriced. Even on the public part of MLS, the...
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...
Online Mortgage Quotes
I got a question about what I think about those online quote services. The answer is that they vary from okay to putrid. There are two sorts of online quote sources. The first is where mortgage companies have their rates...
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...
Why Buyers and Refinancers Should Consider a 5/1 ARM Again
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 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 Total Cost 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 Important Responsibility
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 important responsibility of an agent who wants to successfully list property is...
Getting a Loan Provider to Agree to be a Backup Loan
I have repeatedly advised my readers to sign up for a back-up loan if they can find somebody willing. So every once in a while, I get email like this: Hi! Would you be willing to do my backup loan?...
Dangers of a Poorly Written Real Estate Purchase Offer
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...
The Perfect Time To Buy
There is no such thing, of course. 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 nonetheless rising rapidly so...
Buyers, Asking Price and Days on Market
This article is for sellers who want to put their property on the market priced too high "just to see if we can get it." I know where sellers get it. A lot of people are out there hyping...
Listing Agents Who Want Both Halves of The Commission
I went out previewing properties a couple days ago. That particular client's situation being what it is, I was concentrating on vacant properties. But over half the vacant properties in that area had restricted showing instructions. "Call agent first," or...
From How Much You Make to A Payment You Can Afford
I'm clueless about how home loans work. Is there any way to figure out how much I can afford to spend per month on a home. If I were to get a home for $(figure) how much would that...
Writing Real Estate Purchase Offers to Beat Higher Competing Offers
I just last week closed a transaction 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 this client was...
April 2008: Why Loan Rates Are Cheap
Despite all the hype, rates (or, actually, the tradeoff between rate and cost) are pretty darned good right now. I'm at home right now, but yesterday, for someone with average credit (national median) and 20% down payment or equity, I...
Contingent Sales in a Buyer's Market
I am buying a house. I signed the contract but the seller said contingent to sell until she buys new house? Is that normal? People do it. It's smarter to avoid the stress and complications of dealing with both...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Choosing Buyer's Agents By Commission Rebate: Penny Wise, Pound Foolish
I got this email the other day, responding to one of my Hot Bargain Properties posts: I am currently working with a coworker with no agreement. However, she has offered to rebate 50% of her commission. Are you negotiable with...
Investing Exclusively 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,...
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...
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...
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...
How to Tell A Good Real Estate Market Article From A Bad One
Don Henley has a fun song off his second solo album called "Driving With Your Eyes Closed". I can't find a video performance, but here's an MP3. It's got a chorus that ends with the line, "You're gonna hit something...
CBB: The Art of Setting Buyer's Agency Compensation on a Listing
First off, let me make something very plain. All a CBB can do is give good agent an incentive or disincentive to look at the property. A high one will not, by itself, sell the property. A low one...
Manufactured, Modular, and Site-Built Homes: How Lending Practices Drive the Sales Market
Many people are unaware how profoundly lending policies influence the market for residential property. So I am going to go over the various gradations in available loans for various types of property. Pretty much everyone is familiar with the standard...
Non-Exclusive Buyer's Agency Contract - A Bet Consumers Can't Lose
There are two sorts of buyer's agency contracts, exclusive and non-exclusive. Note that this has nothing to do with Exclusive Buyer's Agents, who do not accept property for listing. I disagree with their reasoning on the virtues of doing...
Jumbo Conforming Loans: Tougher Standards Than Conforming Loans
Effective April 1st and for the rest of 2008, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be buying loans above the current limit of $417,000. The is a result of the economic stimulus package signed by President Bush on February 13th....
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...
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."...
What Do I Really Need To Know To Buy a House and Get A Loan?
While I have been reading the site for about a year, I have tended to gloss over or completely ignore the posts regarding real estate and purchasing a home. That is, until about two weeks ago when I had...
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...
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...
What Do You Know That I Don't Know?
Whenever I go scouting in public forums, somebody is always asking, "What's the secret? How do you get rich in real estate?" The alternate to this question is "What do you know that I don't?" These people are sure there's...
Down Payment Assistance: Buying FHA With No Money Down Doesn't Require 100% Financing!
Somebody who's only looked at the specifications for the FHA purchase program will ask me if I'm on drugs. The answer is yes, I have taken my allergy medication today, but there really are ways to purchase a property...
Why There Is Money in Fixer Properties
I am an adamant believer in the Non-exclusive Buyer's Agency Agreement. In practical terms, as opposed to the Exclusive Buyer's Agency Agreement, it is so much to the advantage of the consumer that it isn't funny, and it doesn't usually...
Changing Rates and Streamline Refinancing - Reasons to Love Zero Cost Loans and Hybrid ARMs
Rates move up and down constantly. This is one of the strongest reasons both Intelligent consumers and intelligent loan officers love zero cost loans. Every time rates drop, I call or send an e-mail to those clients who signed...
Real Estate Liquidation Auctions
With the market turndown, Liquidation auctions are becoming a big thing. 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...
How Soon After You Purchase A Home Can You Refinance?
Legally, immediately. With that said, there are economic reasons why it may not be a good idea for you to refinance. If you have a prepayment penalty, you're going to have to save a lot of money to make it...
Variable or Range Pricing of Real Estate
About half the listings around here do not have a single number asking price, but rather a range in which offers will be considered. Even many agents have trouble understanding range pricing. I've seen and heard more than one agent...
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...
Why Renting Really Is For Suckers (And What To Do About It)
Okay, you might expect a Real Estate Agent to have a post with that title, but I'm going to surprise the doubters by hauling out a spreadsheet and proving it with numbers. The fact is that if you have moderately...
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. I quoted a 5.625% with no points a few days ago, and got told, "That's the same rate someone else...
Private Mortgage Insurance Rates Jump
I knew this was coming. With holders of second mortgages not wanting to go above 90% Loan to Value Ratio, sellers of Private Mortgage Insurance, (PMI) have the "less than 10% equity" market all to themselves. The rates had...
Dealing With Looming Forclosure - Get Out of Denial
Last week, 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 was...
Zero Cost Refinances
Got a question asking if zero cost loans really exist. They do. I've done several dozen myself, for clients who listened to me about the nature of the market. Let me define what a zero cost loan is. It is...
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...
Successful Refinancing - An Example of the Issues, Computations, and Thought Process
With rates having dropped in recent weeks, it seemed a good idea to go over the thought process behind a successful refinance. Other than the two issues, of loan to value and whether you're really able to qualify for a...
Another Refinance Boom - With a Difference
With rates having nose-dived in recent weeks, we're experiencing a refinancing mini-boom. Now that rates have fallen by about a full percent from where they were most of the last year, people are waking up to the fact that...
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...
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 guess is that the CBB is lower than the agent would like. The CBB...
The Future of Real Estate Agency: Expert Consultants, Not 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, particularly a buyer's market as strong as this one, is not the time to be selling a property if you have any choice. There is one exception: People looking to turn around and...
Fear and Greed Counterpoint
Quite some time ago, I wrote Fear and Greed, or How Did The Housing Bubble Get So Big?. I re-ran it just a few days ago, to once again illustrate what went wrong. But Fear and Greed can keep the...
Bundling Agent Services: What Services Do You Want and Need?
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...
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. Now single family detached homes that are priced appropriately are selling, and for appropriate prices, even at...
Foreclosures - A Good Investment?
Well, sometimes. Okay, most of the time. But not always. Foreclosures: Bargain hunters beware! Myth no. 1: A big spike in foreclosures is right around the corner... ...That's because in most of the country, anyone who has owned a home...
Buyer's Basic Guide to The Foreclosure Market 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....
Rejected Offers to Purchase
"overpriced house offer rejected what next" (Before I get started, I want to make it clear that I am using the same definition of worth found in this article) Well, the seller obviously didn't feel that it was overpriced. Given...
Which Makes More Difference - Buyer's Agent or Listing Agent?
Having done both, there's no question in my mind. For the average person and the average transaction, the buyer's agent makes a lot more difference. In the aggregate, a good buyer's agent has the opportunity to make a lot more...
San Diego Market Prognosis December 2007
Moderately good news for sellers, not so great for buyers. I wrote a few days ago about the federal government and lenders agreeing to freeze rates. This isn't a panacea, by any means. It may not help people who...
Nightmare Mortgages and Self-Destructive Behavior
Just got another one of those desperate consumer fishing calls. First off, she said she had to have an Option ARM. I told her I had them available to me, but... She interrupted me to say she had to have...
Do You Have to Lose Your Home in Bankruptcy?
That was a question I was asked via email. The answer is "No." 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...
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...
Transaction Case Study
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 I wasn't professionally involved. However, when he sent me the email telling me how it...
Working with Multiple Agents 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,...
Listing: Understand Your Target Market
One of the hard things to get through to sellers is 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, they might...
What Would I Buy With A Million Dollars?
Somebody asked me that. A dachshund puppy (or two!) would be the first item. I miss Thing, and Mellon just isn't the companion he was. She's very sweet, and devoted in her own way, but the phrase "Canine American Princess"...
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...
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