New Listing in Crestview

Repairs, repairs, repairs. . .

I haven't written in several days, so thought I would sit down a reflect on a recent sale that closed. I had a house that closed this past Friday that again had a lot of things to work through. The main this with this house was repairs. My seller was trying to sell because she was a single mom who just could not keep up with the upgrades and repairs that an older home needed. We finally after 7 months on the market got under contract. We agreed to pay for repairs required by the lender. The buyers quickly got their appraiser out there and we quickly had the termite inspection done to see what repairs would be required. We found quite a list, lots of electrical issues which were a safety hazard, a little bit of wood damage and some areas that needed fill dirt. We got started on the work and knew that we would have to have both the appraiser and termite inspectors come back out to reinspect. What I learned out of this deal and the repairs was the fill dirt. I had called the appraiser for more specifics about how much dirt was required and where. He was not all that cooperative and said that it would be in the report and pictures would be there. My seller filled in what she thought was needed, but come time to reinspect he said no he wanted "more than a shovel". The communication was poor in knowing what was required. Finally a dirt man came to look to see how much dirt was required and he quickly knew what he was talking about. You can not have a negative grade around the foundation. Water needs to drain away from the house and not to the house. In the end we had to get a load of dirt to put in the area and it had to be spread with a tractor. We had to postpone our original closing date. Everything else had been done to satisfaction at that point. We thought we were to close and then 3 days after our original close date, I got a message that the buyers financing was not going to work. They were using a rural housing loan which has income limits and they were over income. Thankfully they had VA eligibility and were able to switch the type of loan. This however required an additional appraisal. Well, this appraiser found a couple more repair issues which were basically raggedy carpet and missing screens or holes in screens. The buyers knew they couldn't ask the seller to make any more repairs as she had already spent about $2,000. So they were able to appeal to the VA and get a waiver saying that they would make the repairs upon moving in. So lots to learn from each deal. If you are trying to sell your house and you know that repairs are needed, go ahead and do them, it saves issues once you are under contract. If you are not sure what problems may exist, have a home inspection done. It will be worth the money and if there is nothing to repair, your realtor can use that report in marketing and show that it is move in ready.

Short Sales Can Be Closed!!

I closed my first short sale today. Short sales can get a bad rap. When I started in real estate last year, I didn't want to touch a short sale with a 10 foot pole, but as I learned more about them, I have become more comfortable in dealing with them. A short sale for those of you who do not know is a pre-foreclosure. The owner is starting to get behind on payments, but the lender has not taken it back yet. The owner tries to sell the house, but cannot sell for enough to pay off their mortgage. They are upside down or "under water" as President Obama has termed. When this happens, however, the offer has to go to that lender for approval. That process can take a LONG time. Many buyers do not want to wait for these sales. They may get a great deal, but for whatever reason don't want to wait to hear from the lender. When the contract is written a buyer can state that they will only wait a certain number of days and then can walk away, but if they walk away prior to that time, they can and will lose earnest money which many do not realize. There is also the potential of short sale offers to be outbid as they can accept other offers unless written in the contract to only accept back up offers. In the case of this deal, we got approval by the short sale lender in about 5 weeks. Our total time from offer to close was 60 days. Not too bad. I have 2 other contracts in on short sales and we will see how long they take. I have found the best way to get it through is good communication on all sides. I am excited to get this deal closed, it was rough around the edges, but in the end it closed smoothly and my new homeowners are excited to get in and make it their own.

Patience, Patience, Patience. . .

I have learned that nothing happens quickly in this business. I have learned that you have to be very patient. Real estate requires such a team effort and patience is needed to allow time for each person to complete their tasks. I don't think I realized when I first got into this business how many people were involved in each deal. Let me see. . . from start to finish. . .how many parties are involved. . . .seller, buyer, seller's agent, buyer's agent, home inspector, mortgage company and this can be several people-- loan officer, underwriter, appraiser, etc, etc, title company, termite inspector, insurance company. . . .and I am sure I have missed someone. It is important to keep a good line of communication between all parties and have patience with each other. I want to have things finished and cross them off my list, and I have had to learn that patience and perseverance along with lots of prayer get the job done!! Thankfully I have worked with some awesome people who have helped to make things happen!!

Be Sure Your Lender Can Deliver

I just closed a deal that I learned A LOT from!! I was working with the buyer and had been working with her for about a year. She finally found a house that she liked that was NOT a short sale. She had put a bid on a short-sale last summer, but was outbid about a week before we should have had a decision from the lender. She took some time off from house hunting and finally found a house in Fort Walton at the beginning of February. She had been working with an out of state lender for all this time. She had been planning on doing an FHA loan which she was pre-approved for. This property however, could not be financed through FHA because it was sold recently. FHA has a 90 seasoning period where it will not finance a property that has not had the same owner for 90 days. She was then switched to a conventional loan. Everything else on the house came in good. The appraisal, inspection, WDO, survey and title work were complete and we were to close 2/27/2009. I received a call 2/26/2009 from her out of state lender that he couldn't close the loan as he could not get PMI for her. The seller was reluctant to extend the contract unless the loan could be guarenteed. So we scrambled and thankfully one of our local lenders were able to put it through. They did it initially on 2/27/2009 so that we could close, but we found out that the loan couldn't be funded on 3/2/2009 as her credit scores weren't high enough for the PMI. They were given a verbal decision on this on 2/27/2009 on what was required and not given the correct information. The lender scrambled again and were creative, but were able to do a conventional loan where this local mortgage company will hold the note until the seasoning period is over and then sell it as an FHA loan. They pulled it off and the loan was funded today. Amazing work. This in my book was a true miracle. God made a way where there didn't seem to be one. He prompted me to get in this business and I will always give Him the glory!

My First Blog

I have decided to plunge into the world of blogging! I am not sure where this will go, but I thought I would give it a whirl. I have been working in the real estate profession now for a year. I have learned a tremendous amount in that time. I worked for 8-1/2 years as a family practice physician assistant before making the switch. It is a different profession, but uses so many of the same skills. I love working with people and getting to know them and building a relationship. That is the same in both professions. You want a health care provider that you can trust and when you are buying or selling a house, one of your biggest investments, you want someone you can trust. You want to relate to them. Also in both professions, you have to pay very close attention to details. In medicine, everything has to be charted and every test has to be followed up on. It is much the same in real estate, each inspection, appraisal, survey, title work, mortgage processing has to be closely followed and documented. Both also required juggling very busy schedules and I have learned to do both. I hope in this blog to share the things that I have learned and to keep those that follow this abreast of the market in this area. I have had a couple of closings recently that I have learned a lot from and I will post those in separate blog entries. So enjoy and feel free to give me some feedback!!