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The problem with that is if you are already listed with an agent, you cannot do craigslist because they dont want you doing "for sale by owner" which essentially what craigslist would be. If Id only listened to "my gut" and took the first offer, Id save my home from foreclosure. Dump your agent. YES the higher the selling price, the higher the commission. And they do not have your best interest in mind.
Maybe they are bank owned properties and they are steering you away from those? I heard you can get tied up waiting on those to close for a year or more! Going back and forth. The banks do not want to work with people. Even to save the homes from going into foreclosure (will not modify under Making Homes Affordable) and then after they wind up with them and someone wants to buy it they will not work with them! Go figure.
They better not be caught doing that, its about the buyer not commission!
Banks paying closing cost, you bet, just closed on a home and the buyer received 4.5% from the bank toward their closing cost this is a primary. The bank approved $10,000 but the VA has it's approved limits so we had to give some back, buyer was still happy with the deal.
Have another just approved and the bank wouldn't approve any of the closing cost we asked for but this was a second home buyer.
Receiving closing cost runs into more roadblocks with the buyers lender than sellers approving them.
I do a lot of short sales on both the buyer and seller side and keep up with all the top blogs, websites, webinars and classes to understand the ever changing process.
I've gotten them approved in less than 45 days working on the sellers side and have just received an approval on one I'm representing the buyer in a very timely 6 months.
Its a process and you need to know how to dig through for either the seller or the buyer.
I wrote about a new government program HAFA on my blog the first of January of this year, here is CNBC going a bit deeper:
'In discussing the Obama Administration's Home Affordable Modification Program, which is arguably less successful than anyone intended, Wheeler made a comment leading some to believe that the Administration may be shifting focus from modifications to another program which simply gets troubled borrowers out of their homes as quickly and cleanly as possible.
"Short sales, deeds in lieu are other ways to prevent foreclosures to help achieve stability [in housing]," Wheeler told ASF members and guests. "Modifications are only for a certain subset of distressed homeowners." And we are learning daily that it is a smaller and smaller subset than previously expected, thanks to job losses and strategic default.
On November 30th of last year, with very little fanfare, the Treasury launched the Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives program (HAFA??), which specifically targets short sales and deeds in lieu of foreclosure.'
Ok, Wife and I (And 3 kids under 10) got approved for 93k so we have been looking the the orlando and surrounding areas for homes. We have sen a few in the 90-100k range that fit our needs, 4bdrm 2+bath garage pool. We have been speaking with a real estate agent in the area and have inquired about perhaps being able to make an offer of 90-93k on a 100k house. This agent told us that because it IS a SELLERS MARKET. That we would have to make offers only on properties that fall on or under our price range of 93k.
Now here's the question.. I do not do real estate but I do TONS of marketing and I have a pretty good BullChit detector.. and it's buzzing away.. Am I right? do I need a new agent? Is central florida at the moment not the definition of a buyers market?
I saw the perfect house and they were asking 101k I wanted to offer in full our 93k.. and was told that this was unheard of. Is that correct?
ALSO! I am not tied down to this agent, no contracts signed with them. So if your an agent and you can get me the house I am looking for I AM OPEN to Seeing you!
I am looking for 4bdrms 2+Baths inground pool and a garage would be nice, within an hour of orlando. I have a pre-approval for 92.5k FHA good till march 18th.
I have the 2700 Downpayment as well as inspection and misc. fee's I would LOVE to get the closing tossed over to the seller if possible.
Just about any advice would be helpfull.. Thanks!
-Mike S
I am a retired licensed RE agent. JMO, you should find a different agent. It is a buyer's market here, not a seller's market. And you can, by law, make any offer you like on any price home. If you want to offer $93k on a home listed at $101K, by law the buyer must present your offer. That's FL RE law 101.
Heck, we had listed my late father's home in the Heathrow area at $539,000. Got offers of much less, including one where the buyer qualified only for a $425,000 mortgage so that's what they offered. Needless to say, we turned that one down. My dad's next door neighbor, an attorney, listed his home and just received an offer $200,000 less than his asking price, which he turned down. My point being, you can offer any amount and it is up to the seller to accept or reject the offer. By law, an agent MUST present any and all offers to the seller--even when an offer is much less than the listed price.
The agent you're using is doing you a huge disservice. I bet there are plenty of homes here in Deltona that meet your criteria. And if you really want the home that's listed at $101K, find an agent that will make your offer.
One piece of advice---if you find another agent, be sure to tell that new agent of any homes your previous agent showed to you.
Good luck. Deltona is a nice area--I've lived here 30 years.
The problem with that is if you are already listed with an agent, you cannot do craigslist because they dont want you doing "for sale by owner" which essentially what craigslist would be. If Id only listened to "my gut" and took the first offer, Id save my home from foreclosure. Dump your agent. YES the higher the selling price, the higher the commission. And they do not have your best interest in mind.
Actually it's perfectly fine to put your home on Craigs List if it's listed with an agent, as long as you let the agent know and refer all inquiries to teh agent. My friend just did that, and sold her house in two weeks--it had been on the market with the agent for six months.
To the OP--what you are approved for and what you can afford in reality are often two very different things. Was the approval through a lender or the agent? Is it an in writing preapproval, or is it a verbal pre-qual? Is it based on a maximum rate? All of these are things to consider.
You want a pool, but stop and think about that for a minute--it will increase your home owners insurance as well as adding over $100 a month to your energy bills. If you are going into a larger place than you are living in now, consider the larger utility bills, plus garbage collection, lawn care, etc.
Have you created a budget and factored in all of the costs of homeownership--including continued savings? If you lost your roof in a hurricane, your deductible is $2000. Will you have that in savings after you close? What if you are in an accident and total your car? Will you be able to afford the payments on a new one on top of the mortgage payment? Keep in mind that in addition to the downpayment and closing costs, you also need your pre-paids. That's a year plus three months of home owners insurance, and three months of taxes. The seller can't pay those for you, you need to pay them.
I don't know anyone who bought a home that didn't spend $1000 minimum in the first few days putting in blinds, buying garbage cans, lawn care suplies, paying utility deposits, the list seems endless. If you don't have that on top of your downpayment, maybe you should save a bit more before you jump feet first into buying a place.
In all honesty, when buying real estate there's a fine line between getting a good deal and insulting a seller. In my opinion, offering 20% under the list price (assuming it's reasonable and within the market) and asking for seller concessions is insulting. If I were a seller I would immediately consider you "difficult" and not sell you the house, even at full price. As soon as you begin asking for seller concessions, you also need to be more reasonable about your offer.
To the OP--what you are approved for and what you can afford in reality are often two very different things. Was the approval through a lender or the agent? Is it an in writing preapproval, or is it a verbal pre-qual? Is it based on a maximum rate? All of these are things to consider.
It is a written Pre-Approval, a 30yr Fixed rate FHA. from a well known lender.
You want a pool, but stop and think about that for a minute--it will increase your home owners insurance as well as adding over $100 a month to your energy bills. If you are going into a larger place than you are living in now, consider the larger utility bills, plus garbage collection, lawn care, etc.
I have a pool now and rent a 3/2 home in Winter Park, FL for over 1k a month + over 1k a month in utilities, the heating and cooling systems in the house I am in now are SHOT.. I am leaking $$ like a sieve here and would do better to move asap... My elec. is easily over $450 a month and I am getting no help from my landlord. We need to Own.
The windows here leak, the AC unit is older than the Sphinx... The faucets drip and I am putting no more $$ into someone elses house.
Have you created a budget and factored in all of the costs of homeownership--including continued savings? If you lost your roof in a hurricane, your deductible is $2000. Will you have that in savings after you close? What if you are in an accident and total your car? Will you be able to afford the payments on a new one on top of the mortgage payment? Keep in mind that in addition to the downpayment and closing costs, you also need your pre-paids. That's a year plus three months of home owners insurance, and three months of taxes. The seller can't pay those for you, you need to pay them.
I have 3 children,a wife and run my own advertising Company. I thoroughly understand the responsibility of savings. Total combined income in the house is over 68k a year.
I don't know anyone who bought a home that didn't spend $1000 minimum in the first few days putting in blinds, buying garbage cans, lawn care suplies, paying utility deposits, the list seems endless. If you don't have that on top of your downpayment, maybe you should save a bit more before you jump feet first into buying a place.
I believe the 8k tax credit may help with some of that?? Also, I stated I had the $$ for down payment and such, lol I never said that was all I had? I have all utilities in my name now and I will just move them, no addn'l deposit req'd.
In all honesty, when buying real estate there's a fine line between getting a good deal and insulting a seller. In my opinion, offering 20% under the list price (assuming it's reasonable and within the market) and asking for seller concessions is insulting. If I were a seller I would immediately consider you "difficult" and not sell you the house, even at full price. As soon as you begin asking for seller concessions, you also need to be more reasonable about your offer.
I want to thank you for your most concise answers, thou I feel I may have gotten a bit sidetracked? My main reason for posting was to get a general feel on what I thought was perhaps a dishonest agent. I am new at buying a home and LOVE the advice and appreciate all of it.
I was simply asking why an agent would tell me not make offers of 90k on a 100k house, it seemed a fair offer? 10% less than asking.. and when asked why not? I was told it is a sellers market because all the real estate out there has been appraised and they won't budge?? it just sounded a bit off. Also BTW most of the properties I am looking at are Bank Owned foreclosures.
You guys obviously have a TON of experience with folks who jump into buying without doing ANY research, this is not the case I assure you. I am fairly well educated and not the type to risk the farm.. Like I stated I have 3 children and have taken care of a home/family for over 8yrs now. Thou I may be a bit young at 35, but I have learned plenty of life's lessons the hard way.
One thing I was unaware of was the need to prepay a year and a few months insurance up front, no one had mentioned this to me so far and I will now do research into it, so I thank you.
The reason the Realtor is telling you not to make low offers on the REO's is that s/he knows that the list price is actually lower than what the bank wants. Often REO's are listed at artificially low prices in order to induce a bid war amongst competitive prices that will drive the cost up. She is quite likely aware of other bids on the home for more money, but isn't allowed to tell you about them.
Seriously, if the price seems too good to be true on an REO, it is.
I apologize. When I made my previous post I didn't realize you were looking at making offers on bank owned foreclosures/properties. Makes a huge difference. Still, by law an agent must present to the seller all offers, no matter what the offer, even if's below the asking price. But with a bank-owned foreclosure, I doubt a bank would budge on the price. You CAN try but be prepared for the offer to be rejected with no counter-offers. Me, I wouldn't bother making a low offer on a bank-owned property.
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