Dallas Real Estate and Short Sale Blog

I was talking with one of my new home builder sales consultants today. She related how several agents have been in with potential buyers and have commented that since the property has been listed for 120 days the builder should be willing to give the buyer a “huge” discount.

While I don’t really think that even applies to resale listings, it clearly does not apply to new home listings.

This particular property was listed while it was under construction and will not be completed until January 2012. The listing is correct in the MLS and we even have a comment in the property description letting potential buyers know that the property will not be ready until January.

"Days on Market” is not a public field within our MLS so it appears that some agents are simply searching by days on market, looking for “deals.” I would hope buyers agents would do a little research before coming out to the new home builder and demanding discounts!

My advice is to read the remarks in the MLS and don’t assume that higher days on market means a distressed seller willing to take a loss. This builder’s homes are selling fine and he rarely has any “spec” homes lying around.

High days on market does not equal a huge price reduction.

Originally posted at http://www.thebranchteam.com/wordpress/2011/12/22/high-days-on-market-equals-a-huge-price-reduction/

We get this question all the time from potential new home buyers. Do you really need one? No. Would retaining an agent to represent you in the transaction be a good idea? Yes, it would.

Some people believe they can get a better “deal” on a new home by working directly with the new home sales staff.

Most of the builders we know will not lower the price of the home simply because you don’t have an agent. Agent commissions are usually paid from a different fund that is not related to the sale of the home. Further, real estate professionals often know about unadvertised discounts and close-out pricing on new homes.

More importantly, there are many pitfalls in the buying process that are not related to pricing! Real Estate Professionals have the experience and knowledge to negotiate and guide you through the new home buying process.

Looking for a great deal on a new home?

Photo: Licensed from ShutterStock

Source: Do I Really Need a Real Estate Agent for a New Home Purchase? << The Branch Team

I recently sold a property out in the country. The home sits on about 7 acres and 6 of them have an agricultural exemption meaning the owner is using the land to produce a crop and the county does not tax the land used for crop production. This saves the owner about a thousand dollars in taxes each year in property taxes.

When the land is sold, the new owner may continue to produce the crop and claim the agricultural exemption. If they decide not to do so, the county will assess a rollback tax. The county will go back and calculate what the taxes would have been without the exemption for the past three years and the new owner will pay the amount due. While in this case the cost will only be about $3000, the costs could be substantial for larger parcels or land that has a particularly high value due to its location.

Note that the amount of time covered in the rollback period varies from place to place. I was talking to a gentleman from Washington and he told me they go back seven years where he is currently living.

If you are purchasing property with some kind of exemption and you decide that you are not going to continue that exemption, you can negotiate who will pay the rollback taxes as part of the purchase contract.

Photo - Copyright 2011 Imaged2Sell

Source: http://www.thebranchteam.com/wordpress/2011/09/11/what-are-rollback-taxes/

I was out showing one of my Short Sale listings today. The showing went well, but the house did not really work for them. Before I could ask them if I could help them find something else, they asked me about a property they had seen on RealtyTrac.

RealtyTrac bills itself as a ”Foreclosure Real Estate Listings” site. According to their website, “Save up to 50% off market value! RealtyTrac lets you search the most foreclosure properties in your neighborhood.” It’s a pay site after a free trial period.

In Texas, it appears RealtyTrac gets some of their data from the county records. The property they showed me was not listed, had not been foreclosed on, and the owners were still living in it. I suspect the lender filed for a substitute trustee (one of the recorded first steps in the trustee sales process) or actually posted it for a trustee sale.

Even if the property had been foreclosed on, it may not be available for purchase. The lender has to make sure the property is vacant and in some cases, wait for the redemption period to expire before they list it with a local REALTOR®. They asked about contacting the lender to purchase it directly from the lender. While I don’t have extensive REO experience, I have two big REO agents in my office and they tell me that it’s not possible to purchase a single property directly from the lender.

I explained this to them and I told them if they were truly looking for active foreclosure listings, the data was available in the MLS. I offered to set up a foreclosure search for them.

My advice to them was to work with the MLS data as it is likely the most accurate source of actual foreclosure real estate listings unless they wanted to try to purchase a property at a trustee sale.

Photo Licensed from iStockPhoto

Source: http://www.thebranchteam.com/wordpress/2011/02/05/i-saw-a-foreclosure-listing-on-realtytrac/

I had received an email from a client asking for a recommendation for a home inspector. They asked if I knew any great inspectors.  Gina and I were on the way out to lunch so we talked about home inspectors while we dined.

Over the years we have both seen the good, the bad, and the ugly. The weather had turned cold and neither of us wanted to go out to the car so we sat there, mulling over the question of what makes a great home inspector.

After some discussion, we divided home inspectors into three broad categories; Bad Inspectors, Deal Killers, and Great Inspectors.

Bad Inspector

These types of inspectors are not competent or fail to do a thorough inspection. They often cut corners or fail to have the proper training, tools, or experience to do the job. Bad Inspectors are dangerous. You don't want to recommend nor see your clients hire these types. Their failures often results in increased liability to the agent and the brokerage.

Deal Killer

These inspectors are competent. They know how to perform a thorough inspection and have the tools and training to do so. Sadly, Deal Killers are often know-it-alls and go out of their way to find problems that really do not exist. They create fear and doubt.

For example, Texas has a "works / does not work" standard. We had listed a property a few years back and the inspection report showed that the hot water heater should be replaced. When confronted, the inspector admitted it was working fine and showed no sign of any problems. His comment was that water heaters have a life expectancy of 7 years and the one in this house was 7 years old, therefore it should be replaced. We were able to salvage the transaction but it should not have happened at all.

Great Inspector

They are not only highly competent but they have superior people skills. They have the tools, training, and experience to do a complete inspection of the property. They do not cut corners and if it's bad, they find it. Where Great Inspectors shine is in their ability to walk the client through the inspection report and explain it to them. They do not create fear, they create understanding.

Do you know a really great inspector? I know a few...

ActiveRain Challenge: Never Answer the Same Question Twice

Counterpoint to Cindy Jones' blog titled, "Mr. Seller You Didn't Accept Our Offer On Your House-It's Okay We're Not Heartbroken"

 

Dear Ms. Buyer,

You made an offer on our property.  The offer was nowhere near our asking price.  We have a great listing agent and our list price is actually below the median sales price in the neighborhood.  We understand that we have not done some of the upgrades that a few of the other sales have made and we factored that into our list price.

We were not sure how you arrived at your offer so we had our agent talk to your agent.  While there are 12 comparable sales in the neighborhood, your agent pulled the two lowest sales (foreclosures) and averaged them to arrive at her estimate of market value.  You then offered ten percent less and asked us to pay all your closing costs plus leave the media equipment.

Our agent talked to your agent but she held her ground that her estimate of market value was correct. We eventually decided that this was going to be a waste of time so we rejected your offer.

The nice thing is our home is paid for and while we would really like to sell; this is not a distressed sale situation. If you're bargain hunting, please move on down the line and find another property. There are some short sales and foreclosures from the down-line builder available in the neighborhood. We understand that you are relocating from an area where properties are selling for 50 percent of what they did a few years ago, but that's not the case here. 

We wish you the best of luck in your home search and hope you find that bargain you're looking for.

PS - This is a true story.  We sold the property a couple of weeks later very close to list price.

 

We're pleased to announce that our new mobile website is up and running.

We recently selected MobiCentric to provide our mobile website along with mobile IDX.  The website includes a homepage with quick search function, an Advanced Search page, a Featured Properties page, an About Us page, and a Contact Us page. All pages are optimized for mobile viewing. 

Not only can a user visit our .mobi page, but MobiCentric includes specialized code for our .com site that detects mobile devices and forwards those users to our .mobi. 

You can visit our mobile website at http://www.thebranchteam.mobi.