What are buyers willing to do for the House they want?

The Housing Market is picking up, however the inventory is still low!
If you have been thinking of selling your house this is the perfect time. 
You may just have the upper hand in the negotiation process!

Here is a look at what some buyers are willing to do when they find their perfect home

• 25% of buyers are willing to pay 1-5% OVER asking price
• 9% of buyers are willing to pay 6-10% OVER asking price
• 4% of buyers are willing to pay 10+% OVER asking price

Other things buyers are willing to do:

• 25% will pay the sellers closing costs
• 17% write a personal letter to the seller
• 8% are willing to remove all contingencies
• 12% are willing to ask family & friends to borrow money so they can have 20% down payment
• 5% are willing to ask family & friends to borrow money so they can offer a full cash payment

New FHA Program Seeks to Give Borrowers Back their Buying Power

It’s no surprise that over the last several years a lot of people have experienced financial problems due to the economic downturn. Now that consumer confidence and employment opportunities have returned (respectively), traditional buyers are looking for ways to get back in the home buying game. 

 Now there is “The Back to Work Extenuating Circumstances Program,” and is designed to allow people who experienced a “Negative Credit Event” like a short sale, foreclosure or bankruptcy during the housing crisis to purchase a home.  Typically these people would have experienced an extended delay of anywhere between two and seven years before they could purchase a home. Through this program, they have an opportunity to get back in within as little as 12 months. The program is going to remain in effect for any applications that have a case number through September of 2016.

In order to be eligible for this program, applicants are going to need to prove four things.

• First, they need to prove that they’re income declined by 20 percent or more for a six month period and that those circumstances were the result of a negative credit event.
• Second, they’ll need to be able to provide documentation if the negative credit event qualifies under the “Job lost beyond applicant’s control” category. This might include publicly available information on a reduction in workforce or that a company closed. Applicants can also look to see if they had unemployment compensation.
• Next, they have to prove that, over the course of the last twelve months, they haven’t had any credit hiccups like a late installment or any new collections or judgments.
• They also have to have a clean credit record for the last 12 months. So, they’ll need to show that they’ve had a positive rental history or that if they’re living with their parents they haven’t had any other credit issues.
• The last criteria is that applicants will have to go through Housing Counseling with an approved counselor no later than six months from the application date and no sooner than 30 days from the application date.
  
  
  Another bonus is that this is an FHA program. So not only does somebody have the ability to get back in after a 12 month delay, they have the ability to do so with a 3.5 percent down payment if they still qualify for that loan type.
  
  
  

  “You may not have thought that you could purchase a home today. But I’m here to tell you that many of you can. Call me for information on the new ‘Back to Work Program’ from HUD so we can try to put you in a position to buy.”

5 Reasons to Hire a Real Estate Professional

The real estate market is a place where most people will make their largest investment ever. It is a place where fortunes can be, and often are, made.  It is not a place, however, for you to
“wing it”.

 

While the myriad TV shows about real estate make the process look so simple – it’s not really that simple… they make it seem like all you need to do is slap a for sale by owner sign in the yard, have one open house with fresh flowers and fresh baked cookies and bam! SOLD! in one day.  On average in Massachusetts it takes roughly 100 days to sell your home (That is just an estimate, some may take less and some longer).

You need a professional, full time, well educated, ethical and trustworthy REALTOR to represent you whether buying or selling real estate.

* There are about 180 typical actions, research steps, procedures, processes and review stages in a successful residential real estate transaction that are normally provided by  full service real estate brokerages in return for their sales commission. (Based on a report prepared by the Orlando Regional REALTORS Association).  So this means that if you choose to go it on your own, you are going to have to do all these things yourself… or they don’t get done… which probably means your transaction doesn’t end in a successful purchase/sale.

* While there will always be that one guy (or gal) who thinks he (she) is the all-time greatest negotiator, the vast majority of folks do not like confrontational interactions.  A negotiation for the purchase/sale of an asset as large as a piece of real estate can be a very confrontational interaction. The role of the REALTOR is to act as a buffer between the two parties who are in the midst of a very emotional and high-level financial transaction, both wanting to get the best they can get often at the detriment of the other party. A real estate professional is experienced in all aspects of the negotiation and is bound legally to do only what is in the best interest of his/her client. 

*  Perhaps the single most important aspect of the transaction is the value of the piece of property.
If you are a seller you want to know how much you can expect to get for the sales price and how much of that you will walk away with in your pocket. You want to advertise the property for sale at the right price so you sell for as much as possible but you don’t want to price it so high that no buyers make you an offer (and YES if you price it too high MOST buyers will not want to offend you by making a low offer…thus you don’t get any offers).
If you are the buyer, you want to know how much to offer. Now multiple offer situations are happening more frequently and if a buyer offers too low, they can either be rejected completely by the seller or they can cause the negotiation to take too long thus allowing time for a competing bid to come in… allowing the seller to be in the driver’s seat.

*  Any good professional, whether a real estate professional, doctor, lawyer, CPA, etc., will have the heart of a teacher. Real estate brokerage is a service business. The professional REALTOR is there to educate you about the conditions impacting today’s real estate market.  It is as easy as picking up the newspaper or searching the Internet for real estate news to see conflicting headline after conflicting headline. “Prices are up 20%”, “Among worst markets in nation”, “Best year since the crash”…well which is it? All real estate is local and your real estate professional will know the local market conditions and will lead you through the process, like any good teacher would, making sure you understand all that is going on around you.

A real estate professional is a crucial member of your team when buying or selling real estate.

You could be buying your first home or your tenth home, an investment property or a vacation home, commercial or residential…whichever it is you are best served in the care of a full time, well educated, ethical, trustworthy real estate professional.