If a home for sale has a refrigerator included on the listing report, and the buyer’s agent does not write that it goes to the seller in a contract, is the buyer actually entitled to the refrigerator. I am actually going through this right now. The listing does not matter. What does the purchase contract …
Category Archives: Buying and Selling
Mortgage and Real Estate Red Flags
This is intended as one of those occasional posts that gets expanded and reposted from time to time. This list is not exhaustive, although over time it is intended to become closer. If you have one, send it to me (dm at) Any of these is sufficient reason, all by itself, not to do business …
Relying Upon Reputation: There Are No Silver Bullets
On a regular basis, I get emails that ask me what I think of a particular company. When I check out public forums, I see questions about particular companies every time. “What do you think of X Realty, or Y Mortgage?” Reputation has a certain value of course, but in my experience, these people are …
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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 more you have for a down payment, the better your interest rates and the lower your payments, but even so, you can …
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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 rail against it, saying that it is essentially “repricing the home”. Range pricing began in …
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. Well, the first thing to understand is that buyer’s markets are not the time for “flippers”. You are not going to buy …
What Pre-Approval For A Mortgage Loan Should Mean
People are understandably hazy on the difference between pre-qualification and pre-approval. Pre-qualification is a non-rigorous process whereby somebody says that based upon the information as presented to them, it appears you’ll qualify for the loan. Pre-approval should be more rigorous. For A paper, it should mean that you’ve fed the final loan information, including qualifying …
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Today’s Turkey
Over at my other site, I’ve got a feature called “Hot Bargain Properties” Being as the market is swinging more strongly to the buyers every day, it’s what you might call a “target rich environment”. On the other hand, there are still folks in denial, and just plain “What were you thinking” moments. Since a …
When The Appraisal Is Below The Purchase Price for Real Estate
<blockquote>what happens when house doesn’t appraise?<BR /></blockquote> I presume this question meant “for the necessary value according to the lender’s guidelines”. Lenders base their evaluation of a property upon the standard accountant’s “Lower of Cost or Market.” This is intentionally a conservative system, because the lender is betting (usually) hundreds of thousands of dollars upon …
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Deadlines in Real Estate Transactions
Not too long ago on a property I was selling I called an agent up on the day a transaction was supposed to close. He asked me the question, “Well who says it has to close today?” “The contract that both of our clients agreed to,” I told him, “I’ll be bringing over a notice …