Pre-Negotiating a Short Sale on MLS “Short sale professionally negotiated. Earnest money to be deposited and inspection contingency to be removed BEFORE the offer will be submitted to the lender for approval.” –“Agent Remarks”; MLS What’s the listing agent telling Buyers’ agents with the above language? (note: unlike “Public Remarks,” “Agent Remarks” are only intended...Read More
When the Inspection is Really the First Showing If it hadn’t just happened to my own client, I would have thought it was something straight out of Florida or Southern California, circa 2005 — not Minnesota in 2013. Namely, without so much as viewing my client’s home, an apparently “big bucks,” out-of-state corporate Buyer showed...Read More
Multiple Offers, Momentum Shifts, etc. Unbeknownst to laymen, there is a predictable ebb and flow in the course of each housing transaction, whereupon each side is most (and least) vulnerable to the other. For a Buyer, the point of maximum vulnerability comes early: that would be after they have verbally come to terms to buy a...Read More
Pre-Closing Jitters First, a caveat (actually, two): 1) most residential real estate deals close on time with no — or small — last-minute issues; 2) good agents proactively work to anticipate and resolve any such issues. That said, you still worry — albeit Sellers typically more than Buyers, especially in today’s housing market and economy. One potential...Read More
No Standard Terms In theory, “rent-to-own” is a tailor-made strategy for today’s housing market, where lots of would-be Buyers have good cash flow but lousy credit, and lots of Sellers are, well, eager to sell. In practice, however, I’ve seen relatively few of these deals. My guess is that the following factors are responsible: –Although it’s...Read More
As part of an offer I presented the other night, I included the world’s smallest earnest money check. Not the amount — there’s not much chance of consummating a deal when the Buyer’s earnest money is infinitesimal. Rather, the check I delivered was literally tiny. My client didn’t haven’t their checkbook with them when we...Read More
