fairyrune | Ze search for a new home.

We put an offer on a house a couple of weeks ago. It was not accepted; they went with another offer with a bigger down payment, and a waiver of the home inspection. We really liked the house, but there will be others. We've moved on.

Last weekend we didn't manage to see anything due to the snow. We're trying to see three more on Sunday.

Our agents have been having a problem with listing agents not calling them back about showings. This confuses the FUCK out of me. I know some of them are short sales, which means the agents won't get as much of a commission, but seriously? Everything I've read says that the housing market is still in pretty bad shape. You'd figure any sale is better than no sale!

I'm also seeing listings for houses that went under contract ages ago. Do they just not take them down? I don't get it.

Some of the listing agents should probably take marketing classes, I think. So many of the listings just have really terrible descriptions. And the photos! Don't even get me started on the photos.

Anyrate, the info on the three we're seeing this weekend looks good. Hopefully one of these will be the one! We're aiming to close by about the end of April. Rich is working for most of this month and next month, then he has a lot of time off in May. Moving then would be extremely convenient.

We'll be calling in the cavalry when it comes time to move. Rich doesn't believe that I'm as big and strong as I really am, so he wants help moving the furniture. It's quite possible that my birthday part this year will be a moving party!

Current Mood: hopeful

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

woodchuck665.livejournal.com

Listing agents prefer to deal with people they are also the selling agent to. Double the commision. It they have any irons in the fire that way, they'll look there 1st. Even if it means a longer wait, it's a significant gain. Also, during the housing boom, an idiotic number of people got their mortgage liscense, thinking it would be a way to quick wealth. So you've got the idiots still working on that too who don't really know the job.

Contract doesn't mean the sale has gone through yet, so they're still listed because they're technically not sold.

And the bad marketing might be on purpose, since if the place is crap, you don't really want to advertise that too much, right? ;-)

What agency are you using to help you look?

From:

fairyrune

Also, during the housing boom, an idiotic number of people got their mortgage liscense, thinking it would be a way to quick wealth. So you've got the idiots still working on that too who don't really know the job. This makes SO MUCH SENSE.

The bad marketing is kind of like, things that should be listed as a "handyman's special," but aren't. You're going to get the wrong demographic coming to see the place, and the people who might be interested are going to pass it over. Also, listing a home as "move in condition" when it needs major work on the foundation. Just totally inaccurate stuff, too, having to do with taxes and square footage.

We have buyer's agents through Century21. They're awesome and a half.

From:

axplazeboy.livejournal.com

I shall offer up the use of my truck for moving and my back for lifting. Of course I'm sure you've already listed that amongst your assets.

From:

fairyrune

Would you mind bringing your arms and legs as well? Pretty please?

From:

heathyre.livejournal.com

Honestly, the commission isn't why Realtors HATE short sales. The problem with a short sale is they are trying to sell a house that in todays market is only worthy 100,000 for a person who paid 350,000 for it a few years ago! Thats not the bad part, the bad part is that the mortgage has to be satisfied so when the bank sees that the seller wants to be forgiven and not have to payback that extra 200-250,000 that is owed on the mortgage they get cranky. But the bank has to sign off on it in order for the sale to go through.

ALso, just because an agent puts the house on the MLS for 100,000 doesn't mean that is an approved price, they could get a full price offer and the mortgage company who has to sign off on it might say, that they want $150,000. The list price is just a suggestion from the listing agent not an absolute fact.

So looking at short sales is kind of a waste of time, yes in theory they are great because they save some poor sap from going into foreclosure or maybe bales them out of a bad mortgage they got into...but just because you see that little price there doesn't mean that is what it will sell for.

The other problem with a short sale is that "sale price may be insufficient to pay the total of all liens and costs of sale and the owner(s) of record may not be able to bring sufficient liquid assets to the closing to cure all deficiencies" which basically says that just because the bank agrees to maybe let you purchase that house for $100,000 it does not guarantee that you will get a clear title so you might find yourself with back owed taxes, liens and judgements against the property that you are responsible to clear up not the previous buyer or the bank!

Okay...enough bitching about the price...now onto the banks....when you put an offer in on a short sale and the homeowner signs off on it THEN an entire package is sent to the bank...did I mention that nothing gets started on a short sale until there is an offer? Oh yeah..that sucks because the bank takes anywhere from a few days to a few MONTHS to process that package. So you can be sitting around twiddling your thumbs to just get an acknowledgement from the bank that your offer was received...unless the listing says "BANK APPROVED PRICE" then I wouldn't even waste my time. You will be waiting for 3-6 months to find out if they bank will even sell it to you. Since you are financing that makes it difficult because you can't really get your financing in order until you have a closing date and typically once the bank approves a price after making you wait for an eternity...they want to close by the end of the month...so that means you gotta throw together a loan that would normally take 30-45 days to process and get it done in 10 days...and then they'll want to up the price if you can't close that quick.

And don't even get me started if there are more than one mortgage on the property!

I guess to the commission part plays a part too...but any commission is a commission. what sucks is when agents do not list a short sale right. Typically the bank will negotiate the commission as part of the terms. On the MLS when an agent takes a listing they advertise what the agent who brings a buyer is paid. Most of the times its anywhere from 2-4% depending on who is selling the house, the price etc. But with a short sale just because it says you'll get 3% doesn't mean the bank won't try to negotiate it down. In Florida since we know this we'll put on the MLS 2% because we know we can usually get a 4% split no problem. But we'll start the bank with 7% and try to get it negotiated down to 5 or 6. Agents get cranky when they make less but never when they get an unexpected extra few points.

Listing agents not calling back is a big problem, a lot of times they are just lazy. It sucks for setting up showings.

The real estate market is never in as bad shape as the media portrays it to be...ever. they make it sound like thinks are horrible...they're not great but in no way is it as bad a picture as they paint it to be.

(continued....apparently my 6485 character rant is too winded for the 4300 character max length on comments....go figure)

From:

heathyre.livejournal.com

Lastly listings being online when they're not. For some reason if you go to Realtor.com the listings are there for eternity. Realtor.com and many other sites get the listing feeds from the individual MLS companies...and there are thousands of different ones...its not one program and thats it...so when they pull the info they get bare bones information. To make a listing fancier and more detailed on Realtor.com you have to pay a lot of money (they charge you based on last years number of listings - last time I decided to do it I only had like 20 listings for the year and they wanted to hit me nearly $1000. Now that I have anywhere from 50-100 listings a year I don't even think about it). Anyway...the websites are slow to update the prices because it only pull the new information once every few days looking for new listings. The problem is when a property goes pending they do not remove it off of Realtor.com even though it is no longer showing as active in the local MLS. Theres no way around it. We bitch about it all the time and yet they never fix it. The property won't disappear until a few weeks after its sold. Its a pain in the ass. Most of the Brokerage websites (like C21 and Coldwell Banker) take feeds using the same technology that Realtor.com uses...so its often inaccurate.

And like

woodchuck665 said about all the mortgage brokers getting their license, same thing with Realtors. Plus a lot of them got into the business so quick that they never learned how to do it well. In the hey day you could list a property in the morning and sell it three times by noon. It was ridiculous. So many agents got very lazy.

And also as he said, When the property is under contract or pending its never set in stone. Not until all the papers are signed at the closing table...I've seen deals fall apart AT the table...its horrible. But you never know...anything can happen.

Another thing is too that since the market is so volatile right now a lot of investors are putting in offers left and right on properties and getting them under contract. They might put out 20 offers with the intent of purchasing 5 homes. So they'll tie off all these properties and then during their inspection period they'll pick the best ones and with drawl the offers on the other 15. Its sick.

....

When you decide to buy a little getaway in Florida I can show you how awsome I am and totally kick C21's corporate butt *heehee*

From:

fairyrune

I had never heard the term "Short sale" until we started looking, so I Googled it. I read about all the horrible things you mentioned, and went "Aw HAYL naw!"

Fortunately, our agents really know what they're doing. They are experienced with short sales, and they've been really honest with us. We're looking at the list price and the tax assessment and such. (BTW-tons of listings have completely whacky tax assessments listed. I'm becoming convinced that many real estate agents in this area just don't know how to use a computer.)

I'd still like to avoid the short sale situation, but if we find the right house, and it happens to be a short sale...well, we'll deal with it.

Dude, you were the first person I contacted about buying a house in NY! Of COURSE you'll be the one helping us if we ever buy something in Florida!