But, Isn’t There Already a “Closer?”** Baseball “save“: the successful maintenance of a lead by a relief pitcher, usually the closer, until the end of the game. –Wikipedia Wanna know why, even though some of baseball’s all-time great pitchers date back more than 50 years (think, Sandy Koufax, Bob Gibson, Tom Seaver, et al), all the...Read More
How to Financially Qualify Home Buyers — and Home Builders One of the things you get pretty good at (hopefully) in the course of representing home Sellers for 12+ years is, how to qualify — that is, get comfortable with — the Buyer’s financing. To be sure, I have a preferred list of questions I like...Read More
Four Explanations “Man came by to hook up my cable TV We settled in for the night my baby and me We switched ’round and ’round ’til half-past dawn There was fifty-seven channels and nothin’ on” –Bruce Springsteen; lyrics, “57 Channels (And Nothin’ On)”** It’s not just Buyers’ imagination: there really IS a dearth of...Read More
Other “Votes”: the Lender, Local Municipality, and Insurer Unbeknownst to the Seller, the Buyer’s inspection uncovered a material problem with their home that the parties agree should be fixed. When that happens, who takes care of it? The short answer: “whomever the parties agree” (at least if no one else has a say — see...Read More
Financing New Construction There are a multitude of ways for Buyers to finance the construction of a new home, including going through the builder (especially true of the bigger ones). However, the two main choices from bank lenders are: 1) what’s called a “construction-to-perm(anent) loan”; and 2) an initial mortgage to purchase the lot, followed...Read More
Question #2: How Many Months Between October and March?* The answer to “how long should the listing be?” is easy: long enough to sell the house (duh!). But that just begs the underlying question: how long will that take? Practically, the listing contract needs to be long enough to properly prep the home for market...Read More
