The Homes In The Triangle Blog

I saw this in my reading today, and wanted to make sure that I passed it along. I have been talking to sellers lately who are waiting for the spring to come to list their homes. I disagree with that strategy for a few reasons. One, there is generally an uptick in closings in December, don’t you want to be a part of that?  Two, if you wait until the spring, than it is already spring, and now you are crowded in with all of the other home owners who thought it was a good idea to wait until the spring. Three, you just missed all of the buyers who bought in December, January, February, and March…. 4 months is a long time. So if you are planning on listing your home, I hope that this might cause you to rethink your strategy. As I really strive to provide my clients with as much information as I can so they can make good quality decisions. Enjoy the read.

Nine Consecutive Gains for Pending Home Sales
Pending home sales have risen for nine months in a row, a first for the series of the index since its inception in 2001, according to the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®.

The Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking indicator based on contracts signed in October, increased 3.7 percent to 114.1 from 110.0 in September, and is 31.8 percent above October 2008 when it was 86.6. The rise from a year ago is the biggest annual increase ever recorded for the index, which is at the highest level since March 2006 when it was 115.2.

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said home sales are experiencing a pendulum swing. “Keep in mind that housing had been underperforming over most of the past year. Based on the demographics of our growing population, existing-home sales should be in the range of 5.5 million to 6.0 million annually, but we were well below the 5-million mark before the home buyer tax credit stimulus,” he said. “This means the tax credit is helping unleash a pent-up demand from a large pool of financially qualified renters, much more than borrowing sales from the future.”

By Region

• Pending sales in the Northeast surged 19.9 percent to 100.2 in October and is 44.2 percent above a year ago.
• In the Midwest, the index rose 11.6 percent to 109.6 and is 36.6 percent higher than October 2008.
• Sales in the South increased 5.4 percent to an index of 115.4, which is 31.6 percent above a year ago.
• In the West, the index fell 11.2 percent to 127.7 but is 21.9 percent above October 2008.
  

Not Out of the Woods Yet
Yun cautioned that home sales could dip in the months ahead. “The expanded tax credit has only been available for the past three weeks, but the time between when buyers start looking at homes until they close on a sale can take anywhere from three to five months. Given the lag time, we could see a temporary decline in closed existing-home sales from December until early spring when we get another surge, but the weak job market remains a major concern and could slow the recovery process.

“Still, as inventories continue to decline and balance is gradually restored between buyers and sellers, we should reach self-sustaining housing conditions and firming home prices in most areas around the middle of 2010. That would mean broad wealth stabilization for the vast number of middle-class families,” Yun said.

Source: NAR

Well hello there, look out, I now have a published outlet for my thoughts, this may, or may not be a good idea.  I guess we will find out.
I will say this, I am a straight shooter and I only speak up when I am sure about what I am saying, so you won’t get any fluff, just thoughts on the world of real estate.

Here is one to start, and there is a link to an article that gives a lot of weight to how I suggest to my sellers, how we handle and proceed with the short sale of their home.
I suggest keeping the transaction very clean, and as open book as we are allowed to when it comes to offer, contracts, and back-up offers. We only send up one contract at a time to the bank for approval of that contract. The banks look at these on a case by case basis, or should I say on a contract by contract basis. What I mean is they are there to approva a contract, not choose the contract that they will look at to approve. Last time I checked, the seller still owned the home in a short sale, not the bank. So therefore the bank does not have the priviledge of choosing which offer to sign into a contract. That is the sellers right, just because it is a short sale doesn’t mean that the bank now all of a sudden is a party to the contract, or principal. The buyer & seller are the party’s and/or principals in a contract to transfer real property. Oh no, I’m starting to sound like a lawyer, and we can’t have that can we……

The reason I bring this up is you would be amazed at how many times I get into heated discussions with buyers agents that argue with me that we are obligated to send all offers up to the bank for approval. The seller is not obligated to do that, now am I. I have a

Fiduciary obligation to the seller, not the bank, and I am to look out for the seller. Did you know that if you send up multiple contracts to the bank, you can have a file assigned to a separate negotiator for each contract… those are eggs you just can’t unscramble, or the timeline resets, which means you will never get it approved, and my favorite, it is just bad business. More on that in a second, first, did you notice the word “contract” vs. “offer”? The experienced short sale agents did. See the bank will only look at a signed contract, not an offer, and not a back-up offer, even if that is signed in as a back-up contract.  Remember what we learned in Real Estate 101… we can only have one signed contract on a property at a time?  My mind start to swim with all of the troublesome scenarios that agents could get themselves into if they mess that rule up. So logically, you can only have one contract, so you only have the one contract to send up to the bank.  Yes I know what the NC Short Sale Addendum says… it say, “may”  The Seller “may” continue marketing and entertaining other offers, and send them to the bank….  But when I explain that the bank will only look at a contract, and that you can only have one contract on a property and one time, that kind of makes it very clear the path to take.

Now back to the bad business comment. My duty is to the seller to do the best that I can to get this approved and closed for them. I like to have a good long conversation with the buyers agent on the front end going over if the buyer has the physical time to wait, as well as the personality to be able to wait. Also going over the one contract to the bank philosophy, and my weekly communication to the main contract as well as any backup offers of contracts that we may have. It gives the buyer’s side a feeling of confidence, not just in me and that I know what i am doing, but in the transaction, and with continued communication all the way through, you will have a buyer that will stick with you through to close.  The bad business part is this. Lets say you have a good buyer, they’ve been waiting now 7 weeks, and the file is just about ready to be sent out for approval…. and another offer comes in that is $5000 more. Lets just say an agent were to have the seller sign that, after all the seller is protected in item 2 of the short sale addendum, sign it into a contract and sent it to the bank.  What contract do you think the bank is going to take? The one that has more money in it, even if they were going to accept the 1st one. What happens to the buyer that was ther for 7 weeks…. They promptly tell them that they will never look at another short sale, and guess what, the agent will never show another short sale, and will bad mouth you and short sales all over town.  And guess what, when I hear about an agent that does that, that late offer always falls through and their deal falls apart. How’s that for looking after the best interest of the seller?  What they should have done, and what I do is, keep pushing that main contract through to approval, and if that buyer can close, great, if not, you have backup offers that you can go back to. That’s the smart way to do these. I always have said, that the only difference between a short sale and a regular sale is the length of the closing, be smart and think. Then short sales won’t have such a bad rap, and we can help these sellers out of a tough spot.

I took the CDPE course this past summer, and I wish it had been there when I started doing short sales back in 2006, I highly recommend it, and it covers a lot of what I just typed out above, plus a whole lot more. It went over all of the things that I had to figure out along the way. But he had to do the same thing I did, figure it out in order to put together and teach a course, so the course couldn’t have been there. I highly recomend it for anyone who has short sales as part of their business.

Well here’s to my first post, and here is that link I was telling you about. It is a good read, but if you follow it to his website, he is a bit on th negative side, so be forewarned.

You can always search the MLS in the Greater Raleigh & Research Triangle Park on my website www.HomesInTheTriangle.com
Until next time, keep your mind focused on what you want, not on what you don’t want.

Welcome to Dave Jezierski’s Blog! This blog will provide you with valuable information, tips, and general insight into the real estate market in Raleigh.