Jeff Davis's Discussions

Well for just a quick answer/thought.  The smaller one is topped out, no room to improve.  The larger one if you fixed it up, the way you want it with your style, you could raise the value of the home.

Did they counter your offer or just say no way?  If they countered they're at least willing to sell (not just seeing if they can make some money) if not then I think your going to be waiting a long time.  7% does sound like a decent offer, even in a sellers market that wouldn't all that bad, but of course each area is different.  You said your agent comped the house and thats what your offer was based on so it doesn't matter what % lower you are, thats what the house should sell for.  Their agent should have done the same thing when they listed it so they should have already seen those same comps.  If they haven't countered maybe you should have your agent talk with their agent and see what it would take to make them happy.  Sometimes it something really simple.  -an idea....Maybe they would take an offer closer to asking if you take all the appliances and/or furniture.  I put together a deal like that in a similar situation and the buyer then took the stuff and ebay/craigslisted it and made more then what they paid extra for the house.

I sell a lot of Michigan foreclosures as a buyer agent.  So my advice first is make sure you have a good buyer agent that has done foreclosures before.  Since most of the banks are not local that we have been buying from I'm sure that they operate the same in your area as they do in mine.  If you want to cut through a lot of @$%& only look at the ones that are fresh on the market, like they were listed today and no more then a week and half ago.  All the good ones get snatched up quick.  I have seen then pending in 2 days (from listing date) before.  The ones that sit on the market are not good deals.  You should also look at the ones with price drops, again recent price drops.  The banks will sell the house it just a matter at what price.  Make sure your offer includes language like -closing to be on or before 30 days from sellers acceptance.  The banks have a clause that they will charge you $100 or so a day for every day you are late to the closing table.  Your mortgage can't be processed until you have sellers acceptance (signatures).  While the clause says that its only if its your fault, I have heard of the banks inforcing this in the situation where it "really" wasn't the buyers fault, the bank delayed them.  If there are other offers they will send you a Multiple Offer Notice asking for your best and final.  If there are no other offers they will counter with you like a normal seller.  If your offer is the one that wins they then send you a time sensitive addendum.  READ IT CAREFULLY some banks will throw in that you are going to pay their closing costs along with yours (freddie is good for that).  Oh and expect a good long drive to the nearest metropolitan to close.  They don't usually close in smaller towns.  On average I have driven my buyers 30-40 miles one way just to close.  But over all, banks are pretty easy to buy from and you can usually get the best deal from them.  But it is key to make sure your agent knows what they are doing.  If you are using a friend or something and its their first or have only done a couple have them get some help from their broker or have them talk with an agent that has done foreclosures, in exchange for dinner or something.  Good luck.

I found this just after it was post and come here for some good laughs, my fav is still the Kool Aid guys.  Quick and funny...Kodos.  There really are concerns with buying now but those concerns are based on future events that no one knows will happen.  What I do know is if no one buys we are all going in the toilet.  So like a lot of people have said do the research on your local market and use your head.  Find an agent that isn't just in it for the money.  Hard to tell I know but if you do a little research on them too you can usually figure it out.  

You definitely stirred it up. I was laughing at the title of the post but when I came here and saw the lady with the sweetazz was spamming, I fell over. I actually sat here and read through the whole thing, dang. I would like to through out my two cents....25% bad , 57% ok and 17% great sounds about right.  In all my years of real estate I would have to say that has been my experience too.  And would also like to say that if people think that only 17% of us are ethical, awesome, that is some of the best news I have heard all day.  That means I will stand out over 74-75% of the Realtors.  I would also like to throw in that our code of ethics and rules are not perfect.  I had an agent steal my buyer "ethically" only to completely screw her legally.  I have an almost client that can't get his former agent to release the listing while he should be a Short Sale and is going to lose his house.  The Realtor won't set the listing active and won't unconditionally release it unless the owner gives him all of the commission from the sale when a different agent sells it.  The owner wants nothing to do with him, fired him and pissed the guy off so he is screwing the owner legally.  I told the owner I would sell it anyway and let this idiot have the money but the owner said no way, he doesn't want this guy to get a dime.  I am doing everything I can but it doesn't seem to be helping.  We are just waiting for the original listing agreement to expire.  I had some property for sale a few months ago for 79,000.  A buyer called me, verbally offered 30,000.  To my surprise the sellers were going to take it and said have him write it.  When we were writing the offer the buyer through in contingencies to remove deed restrictions.  The sellers said no, not unless the neighbors who bought their properties with the restrictions from this same seller would say that it is ok.  I told the buyer what I would have to do and he "do it"  I drove 45 minutes to the property, talked with next door neighbor, he said no.  The buyer called while I was pulling out of the driveway and before I could tell him what the neighbor said he withdrew his offer.  I told the sellers, they said offer it to the neighbor at the 30,000 price, (against my advice).  As you can imagine the neighbor wrote the offer right there.  I drove it to the seller, they accepted.  Two days later the first buyer calls says his wife was upset he withdrew the offer and wanted to offer the same thing again.  I broke the news to him and he said bye.  A week later my Broker calls says this guy was wanting to file a complaint against me.  The buyer thought I was just using him to raise the price on an offer by the neighbor.  He never filed, he must have figured out that he had nothing and that I did nothing wrong. So my point is that agents can follow the ethics and rules and one hand still screw agents and other people and on the other hand can get blamed for unethical behavior.  Although I think the poll is flawed I think it may be right too, based on my experience.  There are a lot of good agents out there and we just have to be on our toes for one and two just keep being as ethical as we can.  Nice guys finish last but thats just because he was able to sleep the night before so well that he over slept. And remember all you ethical agents out there, all 17%, this is a business where you need to stick out and be different from your competition and they (the 74-75%) are just making it easy for us. 

Hammy- congrats.  Glad to see you won.  Happy home owning.  So I guess no need wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving, right?

Pasadenan- correct me if I'm wrong but these statements- the housing prices will continue to fall     buyers will loose their down payment       Propping up the market will do nothing to resolve these problems    - Aren't they predictions of the future?  Yes, I agree that the past is a good predictor of the future but a prediction of Future events none the less.  Neither you nor I have any idea what is really going to happen, do we?   And - Why would ANYONE go into a toilet if no-one buys?  simple, the housing market continues to drop because everyone that has to sell can't, they get worried and drop the price more and more, but no one is buying so more people lose their homes to foreclosure.  Everyone's property values drop because nothing is selling, people become scared and stop spending money where ever they don't have to because they think their going to lose their home too.  Which makes more people lose their jobs because the businesses that the people are not spending money at can't stay open.  More people then need to sell their homes because they can't pay the mortgage because they lost their job but no one is buying so they lose it.  Property values continue to drop, people become more scare, no one spends any money anywhere and we all die of starvation exposure to the elements because we have no home to live in.  Worst case scenario of course.   

I second CHUTTA's post.  I couldn't have said it better myself.  No really, probably couldn't have. ;-)

D- Good luck out there.  I just found out today that my buyers didn't have their offer accepted.  It was a foreclosure, we saw it within 24 hours of the listing and put an offer in monday morning.  I checked back right away, late monday, two other offers came in after we saw the house.  We put in an addendum right away upping our offer to 10K lower then asking (which was 215K), which the 205K offer was a little higher then my CMA, but the buyers really wanted it.  Tuesday we got the multiple offer notice (MON) so my people had another chance to raise, we stayed.  This evening I got the dreaded email.....seller accepted another offer.  A CMA is a really good way to know what the similar homes sold for but it will never tell you what this house will sell for.  So for some more advice....if you get the MON, offer the highest that you would be happy with losing it for if some beat you by $1.  If that highest is still a really low ball offer then so be it but if that offer is too high it may not appraise.  Don't worry about what someone else could be offering, you can't know so it doesn't matter.  What matters is, will you be happy with getting it, losing it and will it appraise for that price.

And BTW yes that really sucked giving my clients that news right before Thanksgiving.