TMTRealtyTimes

Last week we spent a full day with nearly 200 of the top REO sales and marketing teams from across the USA listening to the collective thinking of eight of the top asset managers from six asset management companies representing billions of dollars of foreclosed properties for both large and small banks and investors.  The information they shared was a stark commentary on the state of the housing market today and their best prognostication of the market to come.

They described the huge backlog of “grey or shadow inventory,” perhaps as many as 6 million mortgages in default or eminent default still to come to the market.  That number in itself is more than 10% of all mortgages nationally.  If the market is depressed today, imagine what would happen to the housing market and home prices if all these defaulting mortgages were foreclosed at once.  A huge quandary for banks and investors holding these defaulting mortgages: How to clear the inventory from their balance sheets, which hurts their financial health, without crashing the housing market.

Although it seems like a large portion of the resale housing available for sale today are foreclosed homes, a rising percentage of the distressed properties for sale in the Metro Atlanta market and across the country are short sales. These are properties whose mortgages are in default and whose owners are attempting to sell and also work out a settlement with their mortgage holder to repay less than what is owed and have the balance (called the deficiency) forgiven.

For sellers of short sale properties this is still, although a good alternative to foreclosure, a tough row to hoe.  Banks, investors and the asset management companies hired to manage the short sale negotiations are still woefully understaffed.  Processing and procedures vary widely from bank to bank, and federal and local regulations and restrictions on how Realtors can represent sellers in short sale transactions are restrictive and inhibiting.  Not a pretty picture out there.

The bright side of this gloomy picture is that industry professionals recognize what a mess the market and the process to clear out the glut of defaulting mortgages is.  But there is much work to be done to stabilize home prices and allow the housing market to help lead the nation out of economic distress.

As Realtors, the more we know about how to navigate the unclear and turbulent waters of marketing and selling short sale and foreclosed properties, and the sharper our understanding of the internal systems of lenders and asset managers when negotiating sales for our distress sale sellers and buyers, the clearer the housing picture will become.  Taking many months to unsuccessfully negotiate a short sale transaction only to see the property go to foreclosure helps no one.  Learning how to successfully bring a short sale offer to a defaulting seller’s lender and thread the eye of the needle in order to get the sale approved, clearing one by one the backlog of distressed homes from the market, can only speed up change in this otherwise dismal residential housing environment.

At the end of the day, it may well be educated and adept Realtors and their Teams, who have become expert at guiding defaulting sellers and bargain hunting buyers through the process, who will clear out the defaulting inventory and bring the market back to health.  We can help distressed home owners find financial relief, and help buyers anxious to find a good opportunity at the bottom of the market to find the “perfect home,”  stabilize neighborhoods, and do our part in forging a path toward economic recovery.

Until then, there’s is no telling how long this tough market will continue.

Remember… selling or buying a home is a process and a journey, not an event; you will want to subscribe to our free video e-mail series for home sellers and buyers. For access to the complete series of free video and informational emails that can provide you with many of the important strategies and information you will need to make the best home selling or buying decisions you can CLICK HERE ==èSPECIAL E-MAIL SERIES REPORTS and ask for the free no obligation series of email reports to be sent to you regularly over the next few weeks.  Just put FREE VIDEO EMAIL SERIES in the subject line and let us know if want the home seller or home buyer series. 

If you just want to see what other homes in your area are selling for by searching the MLS CLICK HERE =èSEARCH THE MLS FREE

Or contact us directly for free, no obligation information at info@TMTRealtyGroup.net

In the Atlanta Metro Market, the high water pricing mark for all residential real estate was reached in 2007.  The Peak month was June 2007 when the average sale price climbed to just under $270,000.  By August 2007 the price had decreased seasonally to around $265,000.  At the end of August 2011, the average sale price for all residential properties in Metro Atlanta was a seasonally adjusted $173,000.  That’s 63.37% of the August 2007 sale price or… a decrease in value of 36.63%.   

Other markets like Las Vegas, for example have seen much worse declines.  But in Atlanta, those numbers are pretty stunning – especially for Sellers not selling distressed properties such as short sales and foreclosures.  The good news in all this is that sales have accelerated from an Atlanta Metro Market monthly low of 3,500 sold/closed properties in November 2010, and just over 4,000 sold/closed properties at the end of August 2010, to about 5,300 sold/closed properties in August 2011.  Lower prices fostered higher numbers of sales. Tough news for many Sellers.  Good news for many Buyers.

But here are some less evident statistics that add additional perspective to just how different the residential real estate market is in Atlanta…how much it has changed since the heady days of 2007.

In 2007 the number of sold/closed single family residential transactions with no “special circumstances” in Metro Atlanta, completed between January 2007 and December 2007 was just over 37,000 or 85.2% of the total sales.  The number of sold/closed single family residential transactions with “special circumstances” like foreclosures and the rare short sale was just over 6,400 or 14.8% of the total sales.  In 2011 between January and October the number of sold/closed single family residential transactions with no “special circumstances” in Metro Atlanta was 13,360 or 45.1% of the total sales year to date.  The number of sold/closed single family transactions with “special circumstances” like foreclosures and the now prevalent short sale was 16,250 or 54.9% of the total sales year to date.  It is a complete market reversal where in the residential single family market segment, distressed properties have become the dominant sale outstripping non-distressed single family residential home sales.  That’s a 60.6% rise is the number of distressed sales and a decline of 63.9% in non-distressed sales.  Those kinds of swings are dizzying.

In Cherokee County where our Realtors and Team assist many Buyers and Sellers the numbers are rougher still.  From January 2007 through December 2007 for single family residential properties with no special circumstances there were 2,418 closed transactions or 92.9% of the total sales in Cherokee County.  Distressed single family residential properties – foreclosures and a few short sales totaled 185 properties or 7.1% of the sales that year.  In 2011 from January to date non-distressed single family residential properties accounted for 701 sold/closed transactions or 47.6% of total sales while distressed single family residential properties – foreclosures and short sales climbed to 772 completed transactions or 52.4% of the total sales to date. That’s a more than 400% increase in distressed property sales and a 71% decline in the sale of non-distressed properties if sales continue along the same trend lines through the end of 2011.

Wading through these numbers can be mind-numbing.  But they are critically important when trying to both understand what has happened to our local residential market, and even more important to understand when faced with the potential for millions more short sale and foreclosed properties still waiting to enter the market across the USA over the next several years.  How we as real estate professionals parse these numbers, apply these vast market swings to our home pricing, and to our short to medium term market evaluations, can mean a great deal to our Buyers and Sellers.  Knowing how much the market has changed can mean all the difference between a Buyer choosing to take advantage of a glut of distressed inventory and low interest rates now, or waiting it out thinking the market may still drift even lower.  For non-distressed sale Sellers knowing the weight of the competition in distressed sale properties will help them to realistically price their homes for sale and not get slammed by the neighborhood price damaging short sale and foreclosed home sales that will certainly hit the market in 2012 and beyond.

These are challenging and interesting times.  Knowing how things have changed in our local markets can only help our Clients.

Remember… selling or buying a home is a process and a journey, not an event; you will want to subscribe to our free video e-mail series for home sellers and buyers. For access to the complete series of free video and informational emails that can provide you with many of the important strategies and information you will need to make the best home selling or buying decisions you can CLICK HERE ==èSPECIAL E-MAIL SERIES REPORTS and ask for the free no obligation series of email reports to be sent to you regularly over the next few weeks.  Just put FREE VIDEO EMAIL SERIES in the subject line and let us know if want the home seller or home buyer series. 

If you just want to see what other homes in your area are selling for by searching the MLS CLICK HERE =èSEARCH THE MLS FREE

Or contact us directly for free, no obligation information at info@TMTRealtyGroup.net

What do sellers want?  Buyers!  Pretty simple, right?  No, not so simple. 

First, a few tough but true facts. In the Atlanta Metro Area, the high water mark for residential detached home sale prices peaked in June 2007 at about $275,000.  By the end of July 2011 the average sale price had declined 29.82% to about $193,000.  Interestingly, the number of home sales rose between 2010 and 2011, adding some hope and energy to the residential home sales market.  But that was sparked by a decline in home values overall of 13.96% between July 2010 and July 2011. 

The Atlanta Metro Area is a huge market area, divided into many different Areas where everything from the quality of schools to zoning impact home values in those Areas.  In Area 13 which includes a portion of Alpharetta as well as Roswell and Mountain Park, the average sale price for the months including January through July 2007 was $459,317.  The average original list price to sold/closed sale price was 95.69% of the original List price.  A home run for sellers! 

In the same period this year, the average sale price was $389,859, a decline in home values of 15.12%.  The good news is, in Area 13 the decline is only half the Atlanta Metro Market decline.  The bad news is that unrealistic expectations and pricing showed the overpriced original list price average of $441,924 vs. the final sold/closed sale price average of $386,859, just 88.22% of the original list price.  A home run for Buyers!

If all this sounds very technical, actually it’s pretty basic and very, very important.  Your Realtor and Team must know the numbers, the specific numbers for your Area and your sub division and street, in order to help you accurately price your home for fast sale at full market value.  But price, although a major component of attracting qualified, interested Buyers is only one part of the equation. 

Presentation of a seller’s home – “pin-neat” and “move-in-ready” – elevates a property above the crowded field.  And innovative and aggressive marketing that targets the specific Buyers who would be searching for just this home separates the seller’s home from all those other homes in the price category.  Remember, the numbers are the harsh reality of today’s market.  Understanding what it takes to showcase a seller’s home so that the Buyers in search of the “perfect home” immediately and positively equate this home’s benefits with this home’s price, means the difference between bringing Buyers to the home and Buyers passing that home by without ever crossing the home’s threshold.

Everything about the marketing - from the quality of the photography and presentations showcasing the home, to the articulation of that home’s unique benefits, to understanding what Buyers shopping for a home like this want - must be carefully thought through when showcasing a home for sale.  Even the messages on the yard signs must be unique and enticing to Buyers. 

There is no “trick” to selling a home. There are plenty of Buyers looking for “deals.”  There is an over-supply of homes for sale.    Selling a home in today’s complex market means making sure your Realtor and Team have a firm and clear understanding of pricing and values, past trends as predictors of future pricing, and an aggressive and innovative system of marketing that can elevate your home above the really crowded field.

Remember… selling or buying a home is a process and a journey, not an event; you will want to subscribe to our free video e-mail series for home sellers and buyers. For access to the complete series of free video and informational emails that can provide you with many of the important strategies and information you will need to make the best home selling or buying decisions you can CLICK HERE ==èSPECIAL E-MAIL SERIES REPORTS and ask for the free no obligation series of email reports to be sent to you regularly over the next few weeks.  Just put FREE VIDEO EMAIL SERIES in the subject line and let us know if want the home seller or home buyer series. 

If you just want to see what other homes in your area are selling for by searching the MLS CLICK HERE =èSEARCH THE MLS FREE

Or contact us directly for free, no obligation information at info@TMTRealtyGroup.net

Realtors who represent a number of listings throughout the Atlanta Metro Area work hard to help sellers prepare their property to look its best for showings to prospective Buyers and their Buyer’s Realtors.  It makes no difference whether it’s an executive level home in Alpharetta or Roswell, or a once popular Contemporary design in Kennesaw or Marietta, or a 60’s 4-side-brick ranch in Acworth or Canton, putting your home into show quality condition helps sell homes more quickly than when a home is poorly presented.

It takes a partnership between the Seller and their Realtor and Team to sell any home.  They share common goals: sell the home for the best price in the shortest time with the least hassle.  Reaching those goals takes cooperation and, occasionally a few dings to one’s pride in order to get the job done.  If your Realtor and their Team is experienced and marketing savvy, they will advise you on what the best plan is for getting your home and property into show quality condition.  Sometimes the changes they may be suggesting won’t necessarily be a message you want to hear.  Why, you may wonder won’t a Buyer like your decorations, curtains, paint colors. Can’t they ignore cigarette odor, unwashed laundry on top of the washer, unmade beds, cat litter odor… the environment you have lived with for years and are used to.

Buyers are trying to imagine themselves living in your home. They often have difficulty looking past your art and decorating and sometimes unkempt yard or messy interior.  If that sounds a bit harsh, remember a property that has not been carefully prepared and maintained during the entire selling process will inevitably take longer to sell and often sells for less than it would have… indeed should have.  Most Sellers do understand the fiscal importance of preparing and maintaining their home for sale.  But some do not agree and therefore the importance of Buyer feedback.

Effective Realtors gather feedback several ways. In the Atlanta Metro area most Realtors utilize the Supra e-key system which sends showing notices to your Realtor and feedback request emails to the Buyer’s Realtors after each showing. Some Realtors also use 3^rd party Feedback survey systems that send detailed Feedback surveys to Buyers’ Realtors.  Additionally your Realtor will call the showing Agent to get further details, especially if the survey feedback is negative.

Feedback information is like a window into the Buyer’s, and the Buyer’s Realtor’s minds.  Both positive and negative feedback regarding a property’s physical and aesthetic  condition, their estimate of its market value, details about what the Buyer did and did not like about the property – from the “kitchen is too small” to “the back yard is overgrown” on the negative side, to “a pleasure to show,” “well maintained inside and out” on the positive.  You want firsthand information about why a Buyer has not made an offer on your property. 

These feedback surveys are shared with the Sellers so they know within a day or two of each showing exactly what the Buyer thought of their home.  If you receive the same feedback from more than one Buyer – it’s is a sure sign you have an issue that needs to be corrected in order to effectively sell the property.  A Buyer’s Realtor who may be working with more than one Client won’t be back.  After a few weeks Buyers will just stop coming because Realtors know when a property is unlovable because it is unkempt and in disrepair.

If a Buyer does not like the floor plan you cannot change that.  But you may be able to stage furniture to help direct the flow.  If your home “feels dark” because of heavy draperies covering the windows, or a large tree close to your home that leans toward the home scares Buyers, you can remove these negatives from the equation.

Caution: Do not ignore Buyer Feedback.  Buyers are telling you what they like and don’t like about your home. And they are telling you how to correct the problems.  Often the off-putting problems are easy to correct.  When you eliminate the negatives and accentuate the positives your home will sell faster, for more money and with a lot less hassle.

Because selling or buying a home is a process and a journey, not an event, you will want to subscribe to our free video e-mail series for home sellers and buyers. For access to the complete series of free video and informational emails that can provide you with many of the important strategies and information you will need to make the best home selling or buying decisions you can CLICK HERE ==èSPECIAL E-MAIL SERIES REPORTS and ask for the free no obligation series of email reports to be sent to you regularly over the next few weeks.  Just put FREE VIDEO EMAIL SERIES in the subject line and let us know if want the home seller or home buyer series. 

If you just want to see what other homes in your area are selling for by searching the MLS CLICK HERE =èSEARCH THE MLS FREE

Or contact us directly for free, no obligation information at info@TMTRealtyGroup.net

Sellers were once Buyers.  Why did they choose the home they are now selling?  Was it the location, home style, floor plan comfortability, the yard, the neighborhood, the color of the front facade?  Was it clean and in move-in condition and met all their wants, needs and wishes when they purchased the home?  Was it a fixer-up they turned into their vision of the perfect home? Whatever the reasons and circumstances, this home was the best fit… it came the closest to fulfilling their wants, needs and wishes.

Now its being sold; now the home that once fit the Seller so well has to be the perfect fit for a Buyer.  In order to attract the Buyer who will see this home as the right fit, the Seller must think like a Buyer.  Helping the Seller think like a Buyer is one of the most important elements of the psychology of selling a home. It is among the primary strategies your Realtor and his or her Team must help you – the Seller successfully accomplish.

Every house, whether it is a cottage or mansion is just a box with defined spaces within it.  How does that box become distinguishable from all other boxes? What is required to make that box appealing to people other than its owner?  What is it about this box that feels welcoming, inviting, orderly, functional, safe?  Are this box’s colors pleasing, cold, vibrant, comforting? Is its outer skin clear and smooth or wrinkled and cracked?  Does it look drab or bright?  How about the window dressing? Is the lawn weedy and sparse or lush and green? Bushes neat and trimmed? Trees cut back away from the roof?

How does the home smell: fresh and neutral or like last evening’s fabulous dinner? Carpets cleaned or stained, wrinkled or stretched?  Wow, look at all the great art this family has collected.  Lots of furniture in this room… it feels crowded. There’s “stuff” in the gutters.  The back yard fence is a little tumble-down.  I wonder why it’s so warm in here… is their air conditioning broken?  Oh look, the windows are all painted shut.  Ugh, there’s all that soap film on the shower curtain, I think this is a dirty house. There are bulbs burned out, I hope that fan-light is still working. There’s a lot of “things” on the kitchen counters; this kitchen is small; not enough storage. Wow these closets are stuffed; not enough closet space.

We were previewing a home in Alpharetta. It was a 1980’s vintage in an elegant executive style sub division.  The owner’s décor, from the kitchen to the huge work-out room was beautifully maintained 1950’s “postmodern.”  The home was decorated in the same style and was filled with extraordinary and expensive art.  It felt like you were visiting a time-warp museum.  The seller had lowered the price more than $100 thousand dollars and still had not received an offer.  Wonder why? The home was eventually withdrawn from the market and two years later has still not sold.

Prior to listing a drab looking contemporary ranch in Kennesaw, the focus for the marketing plan was to offer a home with a bright, cheerful, spacious feeling floor plan that was neat as a pin and in move in condition for a first-time home buyer.  The large dog that was delightfully friendly and shed everywhere was temporarily relocated to a daughter’s home.  Carpets were cleaned. Lots of soap and water and “elbow grease” was used to remove finger prints and smudges from the walls and switch plates. Dark draperies were removed and inexpensive but clean and fresh window blinds were hung.  Half the furniture and 95% of their wall are and room décor was boxed up and put in the garage.  The scruffy lawn and bushes were trimmed, edged and decorated with rich-looking red mulch.  Colorful annuals were planted and the exterior was power washed, gutters were cleaned and the largest tree next to the home was removed.  The home sold in two weeks to a first-time home buyer who was delighted with all the space and how fresh everything seemed compared to their crowded apartment, and “how pretty the garden (the colorful annuals) made the home look.”

Helping Sellers think like Buyers helps sellers sell homes.

Because selling or buying a home is a process and a journey, not an event, you will want to subscribe to our free video e-mail series for home sellers and buyers. For access to the complete series of free video and informational emails that can provide you with many of the important strategies and information you will need to make the best home selling or buying decisions you can CLICK HERE ==èSPECIAL E-MAIL SERIES REPORTS and ask for the free no obligation series of email reports to be sent to you regularly over the next few weeks.  Just put FREE VIDEO EMAIL SERIES in the subject line and let us know if want the home seller or home buyer series. 

If you just want to see what other homes in your area are selling for by searching the MLS CLICK HERE =èSEARCH THE MLS FREE

Or contact us directly for free, no obligation information at info@TMTRealtyGroup.net

Managing expectations is one of the most important tasks in delivering a successful short sale.  I say delivering because it almost feels like giving birth.  Over the past year a number of “safeguards” created to protect the consumer from unscrupulous real estate practitioners like MARS and the Georgia SAFE Act have added to the complexity of the process.  So whether you are a short sale Buyer in Marietta, or a short sale seller in Alpharetta, the Realtor you select to help you conclude a purchase or sale MUST be thoroughly familiar with the increasingly complex short sale process.

First and foremost all parties must understand that the time it takes to complete a successful short sale can be double, triple or quadruple the time it takes to conclude a retail sale or even a bank foreclosure (REO) sale.  There are some transactions that take even longer! Here’s a just a sampling of the real world tasks and issues that must be executed and solved, and the hurdles that have to be jumped.

The HAMP and HAFA programs set up by Congress and managed through HUD to help struggling home owners modify their loans or to assist short sale sellers in completing their sales are, for the most part, a failure.  It is not mandatory for lenders to even participate in these programs.  No question there are some homeowners who have modified their home loans, or benefited from the move-out program.  But most, like two recent clients who tried to modify their loans themselves with their lenders ended in failure. They spent months being passed from customer service person another, were repeatedly told their files didn’t exist, were lost, were wrong, and after all those months were ultimately turned down for modification or offered a modification program that was worse than the payment plan they started out trying to modify.  One fought the system right up to a week before foreclosure and lost their home having been told that they made too much money to modify.  A totally incorrect conclusion by the Lender but received too late for the home owner to take any other course.  The other pulled out of the process after a year with the same experience and no results, but did have sufficient time to place the home on the market as a short sale and his Realtor and short sale Team are working to complete sale approval with his Lender.

Even with a very experienced Realtor and the Realtor’s short sale Team, concluding a short sale is no easy task.  In addition to all the carefully crafted and targeted marketing that must be  done to expose the property to the right Buyers, the added burden of getting a reasonable and acceptable offer and hoping that the Buyer’s expectations are correctly managed by the Buyer’s Realtor, complicates the offer, negotiation, sale and closing process.  There are many excellent Realtors who have learned through tough experience how to navigate the stormy seas of a successful short sale.  But there are many who are woefully unschooled. They may have participated in one or two unsuccessful short sales and have no idea how to guide their Buyers through the process.  As a Buyer, if you think purchasing a short sale property can net you the best deal, be sure your Realtor thoroughly understands the short sale process before you start your dream home search.   Remember, the Seller wants to sell you their home… but is not in control of the process.  Their Realtor better be schooled, experienced and savvy or the sale process with the Seller’s Lender will fail.  Lose-lose.

Buyers must keep in mind the Sellers are losing their home.  They are under a lot of stress.  They have no control over a difficult situation, are being continually harassed by their lender’s customer service department or foreclosure department despite the fact they have a short sale in process in the short sale department.  They receive letters and phone calls regularly from disconnected clerks, lawyers representing the Lender, or collection companies representing the Lender (or the Investor in the background that actually holds the mortgage,) asking the Seller to pay up, make a deal.  When the Seller explains they are working on a short sale with the lender’s short sale department and ask “why don’t you know this, isn’t that information in your system,”   they are told it will be noted.  Then three or four days later another person calls and the same conversation starts all over again.

You would think after several years of short sale processing, the many lenders and investors who own or buy defaulting mortgage packages at discount prices in order to successfully profit from a sale would have developed a coherent system for short sale processing.  Unfortunately, for the most part they have not.  At the same time, with short sales having become such a large segment of the residential home resale market you would think Realtors would have learned how to correctly manage and execute a sort sale and manage their Buyers’ and Sellers’ needs and expectations.

Whether you are buying or selling a short sale property, the process is arduous, often disjointed and not always pleasant for either party.  So a word of caution, because with the right Team assisting you, your short sale can be successfully completed with a minimum of added stress.  When choosing a Realtor to guide you through the short sale process, be sure they are well schooled, experienced and backed up by a Team that has the track record of successfully closing short sales.  If they do, helping you through the process by both correctly executing each of the many added steps in the sale process and helping manage expectations with all parties will get the short sale job done.

Because selling or buying a home is a process and a journey, not an event, you will want to subscribe to our free video e-mail series for home sellers and buyers. For access to the complete series of free video and informational emails that can provide you with many of the important strategies and information you will need to make the best home selling or buying decisions you can CLICK HERE ==èSPECIAL E-MAIL SERIES REPORTS and ask for the free no obligation series of email reports to be sent to you regularly over the next few weeks.  Just put FREE VIDEO EMAIL SERIES in the subject line and let us know if want the home seller or home buyer series. 

If you just want to see what other homes in your area are selling for by searching the MLS CLICK HERE =èSEARCH THE MLS FREE

Or contact us directly for free, no obligation information at info@TMTRealtyGroup.net

In Metro Atlanta, most residential real estate closings are completed at a Closing Attorney’s office.  Whether the sale is in Marietta, Alpharetta, Roswell, Kennesaw, Woodstock or Canton, the closing attorney that is part of your Realtor’s Team should have an office in close proximity to your new home.  Those present at the close usually are the Buyer and the Buyer’s Realtor, the Seller and the Seller’s Realtor, the closing attorney and occasionally the Buyer’s loan officer.

At the end of the closing, there usually an air of relief.  The sometimes long, occasionally arduous, usually emotional and too often stressful journey is complete.  Getting to the closing table should not be a painful and chaotic experience, but all too often it is.  This is the time when an effective professional Team can take the reins and guide the Buyer and Seller to a satisfying and happy conclusion.  The guiding concept is “grace under fire.”  When the inevitable but predictable “unforeseen” issues crop up, your Realtor and their Team should be prepared to mitigate even the thorniest issues and help everyone stay calm, focused and working towards the conclusion everyone desires: a pleasant and successful closing.

Remember that both the Buyer and the Seller want the same thing: to close on time with as little hassle and stress as possible.  Here are the highlights of a closing procedure and the key participants in each step.

Due Diligence

The Due Diligence period is a mutually agreed number of days, beginning most often the first day following Binding Agreement.  During this period the Buyer has the right to inspect the property, and the obligation to complete the financing phase of their loan application process.  Your Realtor should be able to recommend a number of seasoned professionals on their Team such as a Home Inspector, Termite and Pest Infestation Inspector, and any additional inspections the Buyer may feel necessary like Radon and air quality testing, mold and mildew inspections, additional electrical and plumbing and heat and air conditional system inspections and others as a property may require.  The Seller should be prepared by their Realtor for the results of the inspections which will come in the form of an Amendment detailing the Buyer’s concerns and requests for the Seller to address those concerns to the Buyer’s satisfaction.  As the Seller, your Realtor should suggest you have your home inspected prior to listing, and repair all the potentially problematic issues so that they do not become a problem during due diligence and inevitably lead to a request to make costly repairs under stress or even cause the sale price to be renegotiated.  The better the condition of the home, the stronger the negotiating power the Seller has regarding sale price.  This video will add some perspective to the home inspection process.

Loan Approval

This also takes place during the Due Diligence period.  The Buyer, the Buyer’s Loan Office and the Buyer’s Realtor all working together as a Team should be certain all the Buyer’s credit and job history documentation has been verified by the Lender’s underwriter so that once a bound Purchase and Sale Agreement is provided to the Lender, only an appraisal and the inevitable last minute minor verification documents will be required by the underwriter to complete loan approval.  Also during this period the Buyer’s Loan Office will provide the Buyer with an updated Good Faith Estimate (GFE) detailing all the loan application fees and additional expenses such as the first year’s Hazard Insurance policy, appraisal fee, pre-paid expenses like 2 - 3 month’s escrowed funds for taxes and insurances and other important expenses the Buyer will be required to pay at Closing.  Often a document indicating Lender loan approval is also required.

Preparation for Closing

With all inspections completed, repairs negotiated and completed, and loan approval received, the Closing Attorney will be ready to receive the Lender’s closing package for final document preparation for the Close.  Prior to loan approval the Closing Attorney will have performed a title search to insure clear title to the property can be conveyed from the Seller to the Buyer, will have ordered title insurance (preferably for both the Buyer’s Lender and also for the Buyer) and will be checking the Agreements and subsequent Amendments to be sure the entire Agreement is correct and signed and dated by all parties to the transaction. Based on the terms as agreed from the Purchase and Sale Agreement and the terms and finances as enumerated in the Buyer’s Lender’s closing package, a Closing Statement also known as a HUD will be prepared and distributed to all parties before the closing to check for any possible errors that can be corrected prior to the Closing.

The Close

Now it’s time to close the transaction. There are a variety of ways it can be executed, but if all parties are together at the Closing Attorney’s office, document signing, the exchange of monies for the close and the “handing over of the keys” at the end of the close caps off weeks, and sometimes months of hard work. 

Because selling or buying a home is a process and a journey, not an event, you will want to subscribe to our free video e-mail series for home sellers and buyers. For access to the complete series of free video and informational emails that can provide you with many of the important strategies and information you will need to make the best home selling or buying decisions you can CLICK HERE ==èSPECIAL E-MAIL SERIES REPORTS and ask for the free no obligation series of email reports to be sent to you regularly over the next few weeks.  Just put FREE VIDEO EMAIL SERIES in the subject line and let us know if want the home seller or home buyer series. 

If you just want to see what other homes in your area are selling for by searching the MLS CLICK HERE =èSEARCH THE MLS FREE

Or contact us directly for free, no obligation information at info@TMTRealtyGroup.net

In today’s roiling housing market there are a lot of reasons why a home isn’t selling. Many are actually true!  But when you boil down all the theories about why a home isn’t selling it comes down to just three fundamental elements: Marketing, Presentation and Price.

There are two ways to market a home, “passive selling” and “active, innovative marketing.” Passive selling is placing a sign in the yard, listing the home in the multiple listings, offering the home on the office tour, occasionally running an open house and waiting for an offer to come in.  All too often that is the level of service provided.  Advertising and marketing is expensive. These days if your home is advertised at all it may be incorporated into a broker’s ad featuring five or ten or twenty homes in a single ad. A confident full service Realtor will go way beyond that level of service.  Their marketing strategy will be active, innovative marketing. They will sell your home’s benefits, not its features. They will target market to Buyers looking for the benefits your home has to offer.  “Walking distance to schools.” “Large, private, level, fenced rear yard.” “Quiet, low traffic cul-de-sac home site.” “Awesome lake views.”  Buyers are looking for homes that fit their needs, wants and wishes. Print ads are great.  But how about the Internet with distribution to high traffic real estate portals that syndicate your home’s listing to dozens, sometimes hundreds of real estate sites nationwide?

Great presentation of your home is vital to a sale. Did your Realtor spend the time walking through your home with a checklist of items that make homes saleable?  A home should be clean, neat and uncluttered. Small details that Buyers always notice like carpet stains, fingerprints on walls, household cooking odors, cracked switch plates, dark colors in key rooms like the dining room, family room or master bedroom, unkempt shrubbery and uncut lawns… the list of easy to fix and usually inexpensive repairs that make a home attractive, bright, welcoming easy to view.  The exact things Buyers react positively to.  Did your Realtor take you to other homes for sale in the area that are similar to yours and show you what the competition looks like?  How about a home in your sub division that sold in less than a month?  What made that home so attractive to the Buyer?

The old saw: “price fixes everything” is true. Make a home price cheap enough and someone will buy it.  But that’s not the point of understanding price.  Great marketing will get Buyers to preview an internet feature but price gets them to preview the home.  The Buyer is looking at value vs. price.  If the home has the features they are seeking – number of bedrooms, bath rooms, location, style – and the benefits of the home are appealing, does the home’s price equate in their mind’s eye with their perception of the home’s value?  On the selling side you as well as your Realtor want to sell the home for the highest attainable price.  Does the price your home is offered for meet the value expectations of the Buyers seeking homes like yours?  In this or any market there is often a discernable difference between what you want to receive for your home and what the market is willing to pay.  Has your Realtor done a thorough Market Analysis and developed an achievable pricing strategy?  Were you shown, with statistics to back it up, what the market is saying your home – “in show quality condition” is actually worth? Chances are it may conflict with what you want or “need” to net from the sale of your home.  Did your Realtor give you a preliminary market analysis to see what your home’s completion is, even before you met?

These are not easy time for Sellers. When you chose a Realtor, be sure they understand the three key reasons why homes do, or don’t sell: Marketing, Presentation and Price.

Because selling or buying a home is a process and a journey, not an event, you will want to subscribe to our free video e-mail series for home sellers and buyers. For access to the complete series of free video and informational emails that can provide you with many of the important strategies and information you will need to make the best home selling or buying decisions you can CLICK HERE ==èSPECIAL E-MAIL SERIES REPORTS and ask for the free no obligation series of email reports to be sent to you regularly over the next few weeks.  Just put FREE VIDEO EMAIL SERIES in the subject line and let us know if want the home seller or home buyer series. 

If you just want to see what other homes in your area are selling for by searching the MLS CLICK HERE =èSEARCH THE MLS FREE