Easy Fixes For Potential Deal Killers
Easy Fixes For Potential Deal Killers
Navigating Real Estate Pitfalls: Deal Killers and Easy Fixes
You're in contract as a seller and you think everything's smooth sailing, but it can be a little potentially dangerous. We'll be talking about easy fixes for potential deal killers.
Anyway, we're also talking about Apple homes for sale near Apple Mountain View home of the week and REO of the week. First things first, easy fixes for potential deal killers. Now you're selling your house and you think everything's going to go smooth sailing except for the fact that you push back on the fact that you don't want to do fixes to your house.
You should price it appropriately and understand that all that being disclosed up front is a good thing.
Mastering Appraisals: Strategies for Sellers
Now, appraisals can come in and if you think your house is worth 2. 8 million dollars and it's really only worth 2. 2, you happen to get somebody who just got into a ravaged business.
We have ways to make sure that fire can handle that. So if it comes in where the value is at 2.5 versus the sales price at 2.8, you have a $200,000. Deficit or Delta. So you have to make sure that the buyer understands that if the appraisal comes in Lower in this market.
This is what we expect now. I always say you have three options you can accept it and go lower you can say buyer go pound sand you're going to take it or leave it Or you can meet halfway in the middle, figure out something where you negotiate, right? The agent must be there during the appraisal and give them comps that justify why you went that high in that price range.
You have comps or CMA comparables, and you want to make sure that these are the comps that we use to justify it. Here you go. Now, can the appraiser say, Pound sand. Absolutely. You're not there to negotiate with the appraisal. You can't even influence the appraiser. You're just there to say, these are the numbers.
Here are the differences in this home compared to the subject property. This is how we came up with this price. And that's basically when the appraiser appraisal is it's a comparison against other houses around the area based on the market conditions, the condition of the house, and what's going on all over.
So bad appraisals happen. They've happened since day one, since the 20 years that I've been in real estate, since before that, and it's not going to change anything.
Don't think that a bad appraisal can muck up a deal. It's working with the right appraiser. And if it's a bad appraiser or they're just not willing to work with you, you do have options. You can go to another appraiser and ask them to do it. Now you as a buyer or a seller or an agent can't say, Hey, I know somebody, the lender has to do it and it has to come through a third-party random pick.
type situation because of the Frank Dodd laws that were put in place back in 2008, and 2010. But that's an option as well.
Avoiding Credit Mistakes Before Closing
So credit mistakes. I always tell people, buyers, I know you can go shopping for furniture because what we tell you is leave the furniture that you have in your old home. Don't necessarily think about bringing them there to your new home because they won't necessarily fit in your living room.
Your couches won't fit. But don't go out and buy a boat or a car or anything on credit. Leave your credit as it is as a buyer. Do not change anything.
I see it all the time. I think it's funny, but people do Oh, I'll just go buy a car because I could spend 2 million on a house. Why not spend another 60, 70, 000 on a car.
The Importance of Home Inspections for Buyers and Sellers
Okay, home inspections. I always recommend the home property, which entails appliances, walls, windows, electrical, and plumbing. They take a look at everything, including the pool. I have a roofer come out and take a roof inspection and do a termite or a pest inspection because you want to deliver that to the buyer so they know what they're getting into before they get into the contract.
That's how we do it in this area. In different areas, it's different. It's on the buyer to buy the inspections and know what's going on, which allows you to negotiate. We want to make it as smooth as possible. Easy for the seller. So we've become accustomed to just doing the inspections ahead of time and getting them done.
So you know what you're buying real estate has to be a fully transparent transaction. That's the way we do it here. Does everybody do it? No. Some people just buy a house as is. As a matter of fact, if you do it, we'll talk about bank-owned in a minute the REO of the week, but it's your right duty as a buyer to know what you're buying.
You have to be able to go and inspect it yourself. Your agent has to go and inspect it. They're superficial inspections and it's a home inspector. We'll go in and look at all the nitty gritty timely things that need to. Make sure you know what you're buying. There could be a plug that doesn't work or a dishwasher that doesn't turn on.
Or what have you? So make sure you do your home inspections ahead of time and know what you're buying. If you don't have the inspections done ahead of time, the buyer can go and get the inspections done. When I bought this house, it had 21, 000 worth of termite damage in it. I knew it going into it, but if they don't have it, you can buy a house for say a million dollars and come back with a pest inspection and say, Hey, Mr.
Seller, here's 20, 000 worth of termite damage. I'd like you to have it fixed. Now, again, the seller has three choices. Yes, no, or let's meet halfway in the middle. That's how it works. It's negotiate.
Navigating Taxes and Bank Delays in Real Estate Transactions
Unpaying taxes? Here's the thing. If you haven't paid your taxes as a buyer in a long time, make sure you get that up and done because the lender and the title company will go back and report this transaction to the IRS to make sure you're paid. Not owing any extra taxes that can screw things up, especially on signing day.
You're there signing loan docs as a buyer. And all of a sudden there's a check and a little red flag comes up that says, stop what you're doing right now. You owe the IRS or the state X amount of money. So that has to come out of somewhere and that's going to blow things up. That could totally screw things up.
A good lender will give you a fully underwritten loan approval, which includes understanding where you are with taxes. If anything is going on there they want to make sure that you pay your taxes on time. So they'll ask for your W2s and your last two years' tax returns and all that stuff.
So while we don't deal with unqualified buyers and the sales process, Bank delays. We just had, I just closed one yesterday, supposed to close on Monday. Today's Wednesday closed on Tuesday because there was a little issue going on. It was a good thing though for this buyer because they got a better rate.
So we allowed the buyer to have an extra day because they knew what was going on. They lowered the rate a little bit, but that caused a delay. Sometimes. Like the big three banks, when they get busy, they treat everything as a process and they'll get to it when they feel like it. And banks don't give a crap about your contractual obligations.
They just don't work with a broker, like the people that I work with. Scott, Hector, and Luis, all understand the contractual obligations. They're not subject to it. However, they know that for me to continue to give them business, they want to perform under those contractual obligations, and there are always hiccups.
This is a human-run business. It's not automated, but at the same time working with brokers versus banks, you're going to have fewer delays or fewer issues. So there you go.
The Art of Negotiation in Real Estate Deals
And tenseness negotiations. Yeah. There's back and forth. We're dealing with one right now where we're representing a buyer and the seller came, the seller's agent came back and said, Oh, all of a sudden we have two other offers in hand and I'm calling.
BS we're coming in right at the list price. Plus we want them to pay off the solar loan. And I'm saying, they're probably just full of crap. They sent back the highest and best with multiple seller counter offers. And up until a couple hours ago, they didn't have any other offers. So now they have three offers in hand.
I don't believe that one bit. But you have to tell your buyer, I have to tell my buyer, look, this is what happens, right? The seller wants more money. They're being greedy. They're saying that they have two other offers in hand. I don't believe it. However, it's your risk. They could have two other offers in hand and they might go with somebody else.
What do you want to do? My suggestion is just to hold out and wait, right? But, because my philosophy is I'd rather go find another house that makes sense for you you don't have to do this, right? So anyway, it's just part of the life of real estate and negotiation. Tense negotiation is part of life and negotiation doesn't happen.
It's consistently working with every little detail from timelines to disclosures, to title and escrow, to all these different things. There are a lot of different moving parts, which is why you hire an agent. You can absolutely do it yourself.
But if you don't understand it, chances are, you're going to get duped in one of those little situations. That's why you hire a buyer's agent, but with that whole NAR settlement thing coming along, a lot of buyers are going to come in and do it themselves and be unrepresented.
And unfortunately, they're going to get screwed over because we, as a profession, understand the process. We do this every day and that's where it all comes in.
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Spotlight on Homes: Apple and Mountain View Listings
Okay, homes for sale in Apple. I saw this one right here. I want you to take a look at it now.
Let's look at the four bedroom three bath 2, 100 square feet built in 1957 that looks like an addition to me, but that's What do I know? Let's take a look at this guy. That's definitely an addition
It's nice inside. Just the outside, man. I'm telling you curb appeal. It's surprising what a house looks like on the inside and they don't do it. Drop a dime on the outside.
See, I like these Anderson windows, but that whole thing can be restructured into an accordion window thing.
The house is nicely staged, redone, and remodeled. Almost feels like it was a flip. Let's take a look at the backyard.
Mountain View home of the week
All right. So maybe it's not a flip because you see how the grass is there. Maybe they bought it like that. So it looks nice and inviting. A little casita, little office, a little she shed. There you go. Okay. Mountain view home of the week. Let's go close to walking distance to Castro Street, which is this guy right here.
Yosemite Spanish revival. Three bedrooms, one and a half bath, 1, 400 square feet, merely, barely 2. 3 million.
It's beyond me because my house, which is 2, 300 square feet, isn't worth that. Anything near that. So yeah, I'm a little jealous.
That's a dining room. They made it into an office. Good for them. Oh, original everything.
Photographers, if you're taking pictures of a room, do three or four. And if you're an agent, put two or three of the best pictures of a dining room or a bathroom. You don't need to have 15 different angles and nobody cares about the closet.
The seller opted not to stage totally fair. I have no problem with that. However, the expectation was that they wanted a premium price for it. When you have a house that's half empty, unstaged doesn't lend itself to making the pictures look pretty, which makes it less inviting.
So if you have a house. This looks a lot more inviting, gives you depth, and gives you the reason for the purpose of that room. If you don't stage your house, it just looks like an empty room. It's a huge cost to 3, 000 for a standard home. If it's a luxury home or those 30 million ones, you're looking at 10, to stage a house.
But here's the thing, it makes for better pictures. And when you sell something, you want to tell a story. And if you're telling a story about a home, you want to have it give each room purpose so anyway, that's why you want to stage a house for no other reason other than to give marketing a purpose or each room purpose, tell a story about the house that helps in the marketing.
It's all about positioning. So if you don't do that. You're not going to get the expected results that you want because you're cheaping out on staging or repairs or what have you like inspections. Go ahead and not do that. Doesn't really matter. But my caveat is that don't, you have to lower your expectations on what the final outcome is going to be.
This one's been on the market for a long time. It's been on the market for 200 days. So three bedroom, one bath, 2, 500 square foot house. There's got to be something wrong with it other than maybe possibly it's on a semi-busy street. It's not on a thoroughfare. It's a filter street.
But at the same time yeah, it needs some work. I'm sure they've repelled a hundred different lowball offers, but guys, this is Half Moon Bay. I know they want one and a half, but really it's worth 1. 2. I would lowball at 900, but that's how it is.
Understanding REO Properties: Bank-Owned Real Estate Insights
If you're interested in looking at what other bank owns, Let me know happy to tour you through these and show you them, but understand the bank will not do inspections The bank will not do any repairs. The bank will not give you credit. So it's important that when you go into bank-owned properties, you know what you're looking for and what you're buying ahead of time, can you do inspections ahead of time?
Sure. But that's going to cost you a thousand dollars before you get into a contract. There's no guarantee you're going to get in a contract. So having a competent agent who knows what they're looking for, who has construction experience and knows what to look for, can at least point out some of the things, not everything, but most of the things.
What is wrong with the property. Obviously, this is right there in your face. You know that you're going to have to fix that. My thoughts are somebody bought this by the hair of their chinny chin and they started doing repairs on it and the inspector came by and slapped a big old red tag on it and said stop work right now and cost overrun and then they lost it.
And it happens, but since it's been on the market for 200 days, it might be a good opportunity for somebody willing to do the work. All right.
Conclusion: Key Takeaways from Today's Real Estate Insights
Today, we talked about easy fixes for potential deal killers, homes for sale in Apple, homes for sale in Mountain View, and REO bank of the week, or the bank-owned property of the week.
Hope this has been helpful. I'm Vito with Abitano.
Vito Scarnecchia Real Estate Broker, Veteran, Dad DRE#: 01407676 We’re Hiring! 408-705-6817 Vito@abitano.com Website: abitano.com https://www.onereal.com/vito-scarnecchia-1 update your home value: https://hmbt.co/bT7qRJ RELOCATION@ABITANO.COM FREE DESKTOP APPRAISAL https://www.propertyrate.com/agent/vitoscarnecchia If you are moving ANYWHERE in the world - Let me know! I know a LOT of AMAZING Agents! Book appointments here: https://calendly.com/abitano/15min Home Buyers Course YT YouTube.com/SanJoseLiving IG https://www.instagram.com/abitanogroup/ FB https://www.facebook.com/vito.scarnecchia/ LI https://www.linkedin.com/in/vito-scarnecchia/ Blog http://blog.abitano.com/ POD https://spotifyanchor-web.app.link/e/oxdH1Hwfcvb Professional Photography by Kim E https://photosbykime.com / Local Real Estate Market and Home Value Report https://hmbt.co/bT7qRJ Financial Intelligence https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc0R5pjHIAPguZ5GDEB-fTbGJXKpWK3coK9Khymv_GTWkMnyQ/viewform?usp=send_form https://www.onereal.com/vito-scarnecchia-1 Willow Glen's five most expensive homes https://youtu.be/3A_E2ck0ePg
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