 Will you be down at the Sandpiper restaurant in Pelican Bay celebrating St. Patrick's Day tonight? I know that I will be wearing green tomorrow. There is a touch of Irish in me from my Mother's side of the family. While I might not be able to celebrate tomorrow evening, my husband and I will celebrate by throwing a St. Patrick's Day party for a large number of our friends. For the last several years my darling husband, Don who does not have a shred of Irish in him, except by association, always insists on making  corn beef and cabbage. He fell into becoming a corn beef and cabbage expert one year when I was working and unable to cook for a party. He has been in charge of cooking ever since that party. What can I say? Hey! St. Patrick's Day falls in the middle of my busy season!
Have you had the luck of the Irish and managed to sell your Pelican Bay home? What can happen can possible happen, you think, that your contract might not come to closing? Well, as we all are aware, time have changed. One of the largest changes have been what banks require to give a loan. The pendulum has swung from banks giving everyone a loan to banks asking for mountains of paperwork.
Is your sale is subject to a buyer getting a loan? Your contract will have a date the buyer will have to have his loan approved. Typically a lender will issue a mortgage approval will all sorts of contingencies. Your Realtor® should be working in sync with the selling Realtor® to determine what contingencies must be resolved before the closing date. Note: the key words in the above sentence are before closing!
Not too long ago, I had a transaction where the Buyers’ bank required a copy of the property management’s employment contract with the condo association. The property management company did not want to give the lender a copy of the contract. The other Realtor® and I managed to come up with a solution for the lender and the property did close.
Because lenders are requiring so much paperwork, Buyers may have to ask the Sellers to extend the financing contingency date. Our Naples Area Board of REALTORS’® sales contracts specify that if a Buyer fails to give the Seller a financing contingency waiver, the Seller can terminate the contract. Some of you may remember actually obtaining a loan and closing on a property in two weeks. Today, that is not the case.
Remember the real estate boom? Multiple offers were being submitted on a single property. If you were a buyer submitting an offer with a financing contingency, your offer did not stand a chance of being accepted. Buyers started writing CASH offers on properties and obtaining a loan. “What happens?” you ask, “If a home has a cash contract on it and fails to close because the buyers’ lender did not have the loan approved?”
Good questions. Our Naples Area Board of REALTORS’® sales contracts stipulate that if a Buyer does not close on the date indicated on the contract, the Seller could possible keep the earnest money. As the earnest money is the Seller’s only remedy in our contract, typically the Sellers ask for 10% of the purchase price as earnest money. It does not sound like writing a cash offer without having all your financial ducks lined up is such a good idea, does it?
What started me down this path tonight was that pending sales are up a bit from last year in Pelican Bay.
Pelican Bay Pending & Closed Sales 01/01/2009-03/16/2009
| |
# Active Listings |
#Pending Sales |
#Closed Sales |
| Low Rises |
118 |
19 |
6 |
| Mid Rises |
33 |
1 |
0 |
| High Rises |
208 |
15 |
17 |
| Villas Attached |
22 |
5 |
3 |
| Villas Detached |
17 |
5 |
1 |
| Single Family |
50 |
4 |
0 |
While the number of pending are up slightly, we are at day 74 for the year on this chart and look at the number of closed sales!
On this St. Patrick’s Day, I wish you the luck of the Irish and the attentions of an astute Realtor® in buying or selling a home in our lovely community.
Should you be in need of a market evaluation on your home, give me a call at 239-594-2780 or e-mail me at Lynn@NaplesBuys.com
Looking for a home in our unique beach community? Search here, once at the search page, you can search by development, save your search and I will send you out new listings to you daily.
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Happy St. Paddy's Day!
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