How Many Homes to See Before You Buy?

March 17th, 2007

Many of my clients ask me how many houses they should look at before they make an offer on one?

There isn’t a certain number of homes you need to see before you buy… it all depends on what is comfortable for you.  One of my recent clients came in from out of town, say 8 condos, and made an offer on one that night.  Many of my clients will look at 15-20 before making a decision.  What’s most important is that at each showing you and your REALTOR discuss what you like and dislike about each home, the area, etc. so that you can better narrow the growing list of homes for sale into a manageable list for you to see.  It may also help to take notes on each home and to rank the homes you’ve seen at each outing so that you can quickly eliminate anything that isn’t in your top 3.

Posted in Info for Buyers | Comments (1)






New Term: Proceedings Subsequent

March 17th, 2007

I’m currently working with 4 different banks on offers for homes.  Two of the homes are owned by the bank through foreclosure and the other two are subject to a short sale.  Well, today I learned a new term: Proceedings Subsequent.  In this case, the bank acquired a property through foreclosure however the Registrar of Titles is still showing the home owner who had the bank loan as the “fee simple” owner of the property.  So in this case the bank has to file a motion with the court and have a hearing to determine the validity of the foreclosure and assign title to the bank, this is called a Proceedings Subsequent. 

Well, normally this is all done well before we get to closing however in this case the bank waited till two weeks before closing to get title work ordered, which means I got to learn a new term and my buyers and I got to worry about whether we would close on time or not.

 

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Twin Cities Housing Market Improving?

March 17th, 2007

Over the last couple weeks I’ve done showings with several different buyers in different price points and areas of the Twin Cities and the one common thing I’m seeing is that anywhere from 10% to as high as 30% of the houses my buyers want to see are “sold subject to inspection” by the time we call to set up the showing.  Granted, many of these houses have been on for quite some time, but the sheer number of houses with accepted offers on them is a very encouraging sign for the coming months.

Houses priced right and in the right condition are selling quickly again… some in as few as 3-4 days in certain areas of the Twin Cities.  This doesn’t mean an end to the housing slump, but it does suggest we’ve turned the corner.

Posted in General, Info for Buyers, Info for Sellers | Comments (0)






Not all REALTORS are Republicans, I'm no Dummy, and I Hate Looking Stupid

March 16th, 2007

I attended my state association’s Legislative Impact Day on March 15th at the Xcel Energy Center near the state capitol.  Over 5 hours we discussed demographic changes coming to and already occuring in Minnesota, and spent a long time discussing housing and tax policy.

I’ve been to this event in previous years and so I’ve come to expect that parts of the day would be slow and that I wouldn’t agree with all that was said in the room, but that in general we are all aligned with the same common goals.   Unfortunately my association embarassed and disappointed me a little this year…

As in previous years, we invite members of the governor’s administration as well as elected representatives from the capitol to come to discuss their views on housing issues and to open up a Q&A section.  This year we were skunked by the governor again but did get the director of the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency (MHFA), several other members of the administration and several elected officials from both sides of the aisle to come in and speak to us.  The speeches were great and the Q&A’s for the most part were done well too.

So how did I get embarassed and disappointed?  Well this year my state association decided it would be really neat to make big signs and put them on sticks and have REALTORS hold them up while their guests were speaking.  The signs had to do with “living within our means” i.e. don’t raise taxes on the state deed tax or expand the sales tax to include services… both of which are on the table. 

These signs seemed to be a pretty tacky way to reinterate to our guests a position they are already well aware of, as we have a kick-ass team of lobbyists on the capitol.  This was a conference, not a two-bit rally, and to hold these signs up when our guests were speaking seems inconsiderate and unprofessional.  To make matters worse, several of the signs had the same message misspelled!  There was a sign at each table and someone at my table held ours up, much to my disdain.

This alone was enough to get me a little miffed that I paid $50 to be a part of this spectacle, but it got a little more annoying when Chris Galler, Senior VP of MNAR and a great guy, was going over the results of a survey that the association had commissioned regarding taxes.  They asked citizens how they felt about their state government and their current tax burden and then put the results into some great pie and bar charts.

I thought, “hey, this is great to get some feedback.”  Then Chris continued and explained what some of the questions were.  This is one that was asked: “do you think you pay too much , just about right, or too few taxes?”  Can you guess how people responded?  Yep, most said too much or just about right.  Another question asked “State and local government costs you about $.16 out of every dollar you make, do you think this is enough?”  What do you think they said here?  Again, the clear majority said it was enough.  Well crap, the association could have given me the $10k-$20k they paid to get those answers!

When I’m talking to sellers and we’re discussing the commission rates that are available to them, I don’t say to them: “Mr. and Mrs. Seller, I can charge you 6%, or I could charge you more if you’d like… what would you prefer?”  That’s a question alright, but it doesn’t educate them as to why a higher commission brings additional benefits that may have significant value to them.  Without knowing the added benefits, I find it hard to believe that anyone would want to be charged more “just because.”

I sit more in the middle of the road politically, vote Democrat on most issues, and do think that sometimes increased taxes can be justified.  It would have been great to see a report that really probed constituents on their beliefs about taxation for things like affordable housing, healthcare, transportation, etc.  Instead all I got to see was a report that catered to the 80% +/- of my peers that are Republican.

I want my $50 back…

Posted in General | Comments (3)






Mortgage Solicitation

March 16th, 2007

I recently got pre-approved with my loan officer in preparation for an offer I was planning to make.  I applied on Friday, by Tuesday of the next week I had an offer in my mailbox from a mortgage broker in town that assured me that he could get me a better deal on my mortgage with what he said was my credit score of 735 (which it is).

When I got this I immediately realized this was a solicitation that was fired off because my credit was pulled by my loan officer and therefore shows that I’m in the market for a home loan.  While she had warned me about this months before, it was still a little surprising and made me feel a little violated too.   I don’t want people to solicit me when I make an inquiry with someone else… it’s none of their business.  Further, I would never do business with someone like this, or with someone who spams me.  Just won’t do it.

If you don’t want to receive similar offers, contact the credit bureaus and ask to be removed from their “prescreened offers” list.

Posted in General, Info for Buyers | Comments (0)






Bank Owned, REO, Foreclosure, Pre-Foreclosure, Short Sale, Sheriff's Sale – Explained

March 1st, 2007

Buyers are seeing many more homes for sale today with terms like REO, foreclosure, short sale, and others.  All these terms have something to do with a bank, but here’s an explanation for each:

  • Bank Owned
    • The bank has aquired title (ownership) to the property.  The bank is the seller.
  • REO or “Real Estate Owned”
    • Can be read simply as “bank owned”
  • Corporate Owned
    • Many times this is just another way to say “bank owned”
  •  Foreclosure
    • This is the process by which a lien holder aquires the property through court procedures.  Each state operates a little differently, but this process can typically take several months once started and typically does not start until the owner is 60-90 days behind.
  • Pre-Foreclosure
    • This is commonly referred to as the time during the foreclosure process but before the sheriff’s sale.  In this time period you are still negotiating with the seller but the bank may have to be consulted in cases where a short sale is needed.
  • Short Sale
    • When a seller is in a distressed situation and the offer that is submitted does not cover the expenses to sell the home and pay off the lender, the seller may ask the bank to take a “short payoff” on the loan, meaning to accept less than what was owed.  Banks will sometimes do this because they do not want to own homes, they want to make loans.  Each circumstance is different and the bank is not required to accept any short payoff.
  • Sherriff’s Sale
    • In Minnesota, the foreclosure process finishes with a “sherrif’s sale” of the home.  The county sherriff holds an auction where all interested parties make a bid for the home.  Most often a representative of the bank is the only bidder for the home.
  • Redemption Period
    • In Minnesota, this is a 6 month window from the date of the sheriff’s sale that the property owner can still occupy the home and if they can get the cash or funding, they can pay off the entity that bought it at the auction (most often the bank) and keep the home.

 

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Posted in General, Info for Buyers | Comments (4)







Edina Realty
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Edina Realty Aaron Dickinson
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Bank Owned, REO, Foreclosure, Pre-Foreclosure, Short Sale, Sheriff's Sale – Explained