Mar. 20, 2007 - The Buy-Sell Dilemma

Homeowners often find themselves in a position of wanting to purchase a new home and sell their present one at the same time. Where should they begin? They should start by keeping their goal in mind and with the help of a good Realtor, this process shouldn't be difficult providing they remain open to their agent's suggestions as to how best accomplish the goal.

First, get your current home in showing condition to prepare for listing it. Your Realtor will be able to go through your house with you and provide suggestions as to what changes to make to show your house in the best possible light. Do everything possible to follow their suggestions so that your house will sell quickly and at the highest possible price.

Second, have your Realtor start showing you houses. If the inventory of homes for sale is in your price range and style, have your Realtor list your home prior to making an offer on the home of your choice. This can be done in quickly since your home is already in showing condition.

You should not have to resort to temporary housing unless your home is extremely unique making it more difficult to sell, or if there are other conditions that make your house less saleable. And your Realtor should provide you with weekly feedback on showings and advise you if market conditions have changed making a price adjustment necessary.  And be sure to make it convenient for buyer's to view your home by not restricting the showing times unnecessarily.

Normally, this strategy will help you to meet your goal without needless stress!

Mar. 17, 2007 - A Housing Opportunities Fair

The Ithaca Board of Realtors and The Ithaca Journal are co-sponsoring an event, Home Within Reach: A Housing Opportunities Fair, for the community which promises to be fun, informative and educational. There will be seminars and workshops for first-time homebuyer financing, programs to help homeowners keep their homes energy efficient, information on assessments, and more. The event will be held next Saturday, March 24 from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the Ithaca High School. Admission is free. Stop in and meet with Ithaca area realtors, mortgage lenders, home inspectors and attorneys regarding the home buying process!

Mar. 1, 2007 - Why Should I Prequalify?

I'm asked quite often by clients, particularly those buying their first home and will be taking advantage of financing, why they should prequalify for a mortgage even before they look at their first potential home. They tell me that where they came from, this was not necessary and even feel it is an invasion of their privacy. I could write volumes on this subject, but I'll try to be succinct.

Prequalification is quite simple and can often be done via fax or over the phone in 15 minutes. The lender gathers information on your assets and liabilities and checks your credit report. And you don't have to obtain your mortgage from the same institution that you received your prequalification from. Among other things, you'll discover during the prequalification process the following:

Your level of comfort.  After gathering your financial information, the lender will discuss with you your level of comfort in terms of monthly payments. Perhaps you qualify for a mortgage in the range of $250,000, but your level of comfort with monthly payments for a home in that range might be more than you are willing to take on, especially when you consider taxes, homeowners insurance, utilities, and other expenses inherent to owning a home. They might also help you explore ways in which you can come up with a bigger down payment and lower those payments.

Available financing products. You may qualify for SONYMA, FHA, adjustable rate mortgage, no money down mortgage (that's another show - don't get me started), conventional mortage, etc. You're making an important investment. You need to be properly educated.

Those unwelcome surprises. I have a client that made arrangements with a credit card company to pay her bills as she traveled abroad, only to find that the company had made some kind of error (and blamed her, of course) and wasn't paying the bills. Another friend found when he started the prequalifying process that he was the victim of identity theft, which took him a year to straighten out before he could qualify for a mortgage at a decent rate. By the way, have you checked your credit reports lately? It's free. Enter "free credit report" in the search engine of your choice.

Avoid wasting your time. Why would you want to spend time looking at houses either out of your range of comfort or homes that are less than you can afford and don't offer the amenities that you want?

Be prepared to make an offer quickly. In the Ithaca area, it is a standard practice to submit the Letter of Prequalification with your purchase offer. It's the beginning of the spring market right now. Let's say it's Friday evening (your bank is closed). I show you THE house. You want to submit an offer. This is a great house and we know that there will be other offers, so you want your offer to be as strong as possible because it is likely that other offers will be submitted this weekend. You didn't get prequalified. Another offer is submitted with a comfort letter. The seller has until Saturday at 5:00 p.m. to make a decision. The offers are identical, but the other buyer has proof they will be able to obtain financing. Guess whose offer will be accepted?

If it were your house... I work primarily as a Buyer's Agent. As such, I owe my full loyalty to my buyer, as well as other fiduciary responsibilities. Often I am finding a new home for my buyer as well as selling their current house. In this case, my client wants me to bring only qualified buyers to view their home. They don't really want to hurriedly pick up clutter, do the dinner dishes, and leave for an hour so their home can be shown to someone who not only is not prequalified to make an offer on their home, but has just always wanted to know what the house looked like on the inside!

This will explain why I insist that the buyers I take out get prequalified before we look at even one house. It just makes sense. Did I say I was going to be succinct?