by Barry Cunningham

Real Estate Broadcaster and Investor

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In addition to questioning certain real estate agents as to just what they do that justifies the commission that they charge, we also have wondered aloud if the real estate market is in the state that it is because there are “no buyers”or is the real estate market in the state that it’s in because most real estate agents don’t know how to work in this market.

How many Realtors are properly trained to respond to the challenges that are readily found in today’s real estate climate? How many Realtors simply have thrown in the proverbial towel and are merely hanging out in the barber shop telling war stories of the good old days?

This market requires specialized training and even more…it requires a lot of enthusiastic ambition. If you are content to self-prophecize about there being no buyers, then there will be no buyers. What are you truly doing to generate revenue on a daily basis? If the fish aren’t buying then you have basically one or two problems, and only one of two problems.

First, you may be using the wrong bait, second you are not fishing where the hungry fish are. That’s it. Really simple, now you’re problems are solved.

Active Rain, with it’s 80,000+ members seems to be more the barbershop than the bastion of capitalism that it could be. We assumed, that with such a high contingent of Realtors hanging out in one locale that it would be simple to get in touch with some Realtors who have property to sell.

One would think that by reading some of the posts that most of the agents there actually had listings and that the purpose of those listings was to actually seek buyers for them. Shame on me for assuming.

We made a post on Active Rain declaring in the fashion of Billy Ray Valentine and Louis Winthorpe that we are actually buying.

In addition to that, we have a growing network of buyers across the USA that are aggressively looking to buy. You would have thought that the bell would be sounded on the trading floor and it would have been a Read more

by Eric Blackwell

The Real Estate Group, Virginia Beach and Chesapeake VA

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Several years ago I was at a pretty exclusive real estate conference for large brokerages held in Denver. As part of the conference a representative from a major online lender presented an “emotional model” of what an online buyer’s experience was like. It was a roller coaster ranging from the “high” of deciding to look for a house and starting the search, to the “low” of applying for the mortgage. I thought at the time that since many folks tend to avoid pain MUCH more readily than move toward pleasure, if we simply offer a buying experience with LESS negatives, we would gain more sales.

That has proven to be true. We continue to look for ways to do this in our operation. As we find them, we implement them. It has paid off in spades.

Then a thought struck me this past weekend. I am SURE that it is not new. It was the culmination of many posts read here and elsewhere. It was / is a principle that is at once amazingly simple and yet difficult to execute with precision.

CREATE THE SAME PAIN FREE PROCESS FOR SELLERS.

It is to accomplish EVERYTHING that needs to be done to MARKET and SELL a home, with as little pain (or even ANTICIPATION of discomfort) as possible. And, of course, then the process needs to be turned into a system and scripted. In short, a seller / REALTOR relationship should not feel like this:

When you saw the image above, you felt the discomfort that the neuroassociations of the image immediately brought to mind. The seller feels these same things. Let’s take a trip into things THEY find discomfort with.

1. How much they owe on the home.

Many of our agents prefer now to look up what is owed on the property ONLINE since we have access to courthouse records and all liens without leaving the comfort of our computer screens. This allows the REALTOR to reacts with sensitivity where needed and to (as importantly) make good marketing decisions with honest information. We can then use statements like “I understand that you feel pinched right now…let’s Read more

by Greg Swann

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

We haven’t done one of these in a while. We get a lot of really good questions, but, for most of them, the answer is the same: “You need to talk to a really good real estate attorney in your jurisdiction.”

This one is different, with a couple of interesting problems:

I signed a contract on a home in Virginia. We just found out 3 weeks later after the home inspection the sellers agent is the brother in law to the seller. He never told us. My agent took a cut in his commission to make the sale go though and he was not told. Can this break a contract?

These are the two issues I’m seeing — your mileage may vary:

• “the sellers agent is the brother in law to the seller” — and this was not disclosed
• “Can this break a contract?”

There may be a specific answer to the first issue in Virginia statute law. In Arizona, my advice to agents would be to disclose only first degree relationships — blood, adoptive or legal: Mother, father, brother, sister, spouse, son or daughter.

Arguably, an agent could disclose any prior knowledge of the principal, guarding that person’s confidentiality, but I don’t see failing to disclose a brother-in-law as being a grievous injury. Am I wrong?

I’m thinking maybe the second issue — “Can this break a contract?” — is the real objection.

My answer: Almost certainly not. I can’t say for sure without reading the contract language, but I would be amazed if it included a contingency for undisclosed second-degree relationships.

In other words, if the failure to disclose the brother-in-law really is an actionable issue in Virginia, the action would be taken against the agent at the state licensing authority or the local board of Realtors.

Unless the agent is a party to the purchase contract, I can’t see how any misfeasance on his part could be considered a breach of that contract — which governs the performance of only the principal parties.

Others reading here may differ, which disagreement is invited.

And if you want to explore your full recourse under the law: “You need to talk to a really Read more

by Greg Swann

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This is my column for this week from the Arizona Republic (permanent link):

 
Looking for a bargain in Phoenix real estate? Add some elbow grease to your money and go for a bank-owned home

Last week we talked about how home sellers can command a premium price in the current Phoenix real estate market, even if they are competing with nearby foreclosure properties, by putting the home into turn-key condition.

So what’s the counter-strategy? If you’re a buyer looking for the best possible price, what should you do?

Go for the bank-owned homes, of course. Trying to buy a short sale can be heart-rending. The price listed in the MLS will be meaningless. The lender will decide what price to allow. Still worse, lenders drag their feet on short sales. If they have any hope of keeping the loan alive, they won’t let the house go. Meanwhile, your own interest rate could be spiking, rendering you unqualified for the deal if and when it finally comes through.

By contrast, bank-owned homes (you might hear them called REOs, for “real estate owned”) can race through the escrow process. Once a bank has foreclosed on a home, all it wants is to get it off its books and recover whatever cash it can, as quickly as it can. In consequence, your offer might be approved in just a couple of days, with the bank rushing the closing date any way it can.

Because of that, your loan qualification matters a lot. If you look shaky to the bank, it might pick a lower offer from a stronger borrower just to be assured of getting whatever money it can out of the deal.

And then there is the condition of the home. People  losing their homes sometimes let the daily maintenance slide. Expect to see filthy carpets, scuffed-up paint, damaged doors. The air conditioner might have been removed and sold, or the water heater — or even the kitchen sink.

In most cases, the bargain price you get for the home is going to be offset somewhat by the money you will have to put into it. But if you are handy Read more