A handful of years ago I had a property in Kuna, Idaho that I wanted to sell myself. I had tried earlier that spring w/out success. The problem I ran into was the inventory during the spring simply exceeded demand. (I recall approximately 20 active homes during the spring on the market) As a result, my property sat on the market. Later during the year, as it became colder, more and more sellers took their homes off the market. By early Dec, only 3 homes in the subdivision were on the market. As a result, I placed my home on the market and had it sold by the end of the month. So how is/was this possible?

I tend to believe that homeowners put too much weight on spring and summer sold data. The reality is that yes, more homes are sold in the spring and summer. However, more homes are also on the market during spring and summer. Homeowners should study their competition and move forward with a listing when they feel they have the best opportunity to sell their home for the most money. For some homeowners, this will be in the spring and summer, however, for others… this may very well be in the winter. Give us a call or shoot us an email and we can examine your subdivision and tell you exactly how many homes are currently on the market in your neighborhood at any given point in time. (At no cost!)

Should the seller be present during the final walk through and inspection? The truth is that 99% of inspectors, agents, and buyers do not want the owner present during either the walk through or inspection. If the owners presence is needed, one of the three will notify the owner ahead of time. As a general rule, I typically recommend sellers  not be present, however, dropping by unexpectedly during the inspection or walk through is perfectly acceptable. (Following the inspector around the property for 2 hours is not acceptable.)

Why would a seller not want to be present during the inspection? An inspector is going to note anything he/she finds during the inspection. Any information the seller provides the inspector during the inspection is not going to change the report. If anything, it will annoy the inspector. As a seller, the last person you want to bother is the individual responsible for finding every small detail that could possibly be perceived as an imperfection. Instead, step back, let the inspector do his/her job, and let the property speak for itself.

NOMAR is requiring that all active MLS listings include the residential disclosures as a part of the listing. The MLS has a separate area for attachments to the MLS listing. In this location, we add the disclosures by attaching them to the listing via a PDF file. It is imperative that all Louisiana sellers fax back the disclosures to 866 314 7201. We will upload them upon receipt. To locate the disclosures, you can visit the private client area and click on state approved docs. We also emailed the disclosures to each Louisiana seller on Tuesday of this week.

Why is NOMAR requiring this?  In short, they want to give agents working with buyers as much info as possible prior to showing each listing.

I’ve never understood why other FSBO related websites will not show you the docs they want you to sign unless you pay for the service upfront. After they receive payment, they then give you the docs they want you to sign. This makes no sense to me from the consumer perspective.

With our list now email system, you can download and print out listing docs anytime you wish before paying a penny. There is no obligation whatsoever when you click our list now button. By clicking this button, the only thing you are doing is having our Flat Fee Listing Docs emailed to you. Once you receive them, you can read over them, if you like what you see, fill them out and send them back… if not, throw them away… No questions asked.

If you run into a company that wants your money before they will show you their own listing contract, consider what they may be hiding before paying for their service.

MLS dot com is coming under fire from NAR right now for the mis-use of the term MLS. In a nutshell, MLS dot com has nothing to do with any local MLS and has nothing to do with NAR. (National Association of Realtors(R)) In its most basic form, MLS dot com is simply a site dedicated to selling leads back to agents and charging agents a fee to add their properties to the MLS dot com database.  The site wants to make money off agents by charging these agents the right to advertise their own listings. How can they do this? Simple, they own the URL MLS dot com, and in short, take advantage of the phrase MLS.

Is there any advantage to my property being listed on MLS dot com?

Yes and No, the reality is that less than 15% of all MLS listings across the country will show up on the MLS dot com webpage. Sites such as Realtor.com are much more effective marketing tools.

There are still many cranes in the sky in downtown Austin, Texas.  I am sure that a lot of buyers won’t close on these units, but I still see the real estate boom/bust as being positive in terms of some really cool construction that has gone up in various downtown areas that would have never been funded in today’s economic climate.

This is a great question and one that I get often. Basically, most sellers have heard this exact comment before and may not understand why. Realtors(R), as with most other Americans, worry about getting paid. The problem with a short sale is that even if the Realtor(R) brings a willing able ready buyer at the listed price, there is a very small chance the lender will ever accept the offer, let alone close the transaction. Adding to this, a response to the buyer’s offer can take up to 3 months to receive. Many Realtors(R) have the attitude of why bother? (Especially with thousands of other available properties that they can earn a commission by bringing a ready buyer)

I have a couple of opinions on this issue myself. A Realtor(R) should show their buyer everything out there that matches the buyer’s criteria. If the buyer doesn’t wish to see short sales, the Realtor(R) should scratch these off the list. On the other hand, if the buyer would like to test the short sale market, the Realtor(R) should explain upfront to the buyer that this is a long and grueling process that takes great patience. On the other side of this, I have no sympathy for the lenders in this situation. Lenders make this process miserable on everyone by being understaffed and employing individuals with no experience in short sales. I’ll give you an example,  call your lender and ask about the short sale process and what their procedures are, hang up and call back 10 minutes later, you will receive an entirely different answer to the exact same question. In the next few weeks I will be publishing a handful of articles on how to get your short sale approved by your lender and avoid these pitfalls.

ARMLS (Arizona Regional MLS) has announced a new partnership with Fannie Mae as of Dec 2008. The partnership will streamline and ease the short sale process for both agents and sellers. Buyer Agents will benefit from this new working partnership because it will take the guess work out of the short sale process. Buyer Agents notoriously stay away from short sales because of the countless number of short sales that never result in closed sales. This process should defeat this problem and help move existing inventory out of the market place. The concept of the program will go something this…

Fannie Mae and ARMLS have set up a pilot consisting of eligible properties for the short sale process. The pilot will pre-approve the short sale price. As a result, if a buyer agent submits an offer at this list price, the offer will be accepted. (assuming the offer meets other standard short sale procedures – such as no second lien, asset verification, etc..)

The greatest positive of this is that it gives the agent direct access to the lender who is servicing the loan. The biggest problem facing listing agents today is they are only allowed to speak with customer service reps at the lender who have absolutely no information on the how the short sale process works or what needs to completed for an approval to occur. If you are in the Phoenix Metro area or any market we handle and facing a short sale situation, give us a call at 800 657 6579. We have helped countless sellers sell their properties successfully through the short sale process.