Robin Lynch's Discussions

Hi. This is Robin Lynch from Century 21 Wolff in White Plains, NY. I hope everyone is having a nice day. I have a question for those who are selling their home, FSBO or by agent, or are planning to sell their home. What does fair market value mean to you? Also, to you as the seller, determines the selling price of your home?

Definition: A short sale occurs when a property is sold and the lender agrees to accept a discounted payoff, meaning the lender will release the lien that is secured to the property upon receipt of less money than is actually owed.Also Known As: Shorted saleAlternate Spellings: Short-saleExamples: If the unpaid balance of a loan is, say, $100,000 and a property sells for $90,000, under a short sale the lender might accept $90,000 as payment in full.

Preforeclosures are the period between the mortgage Lender's notice to the Borrowers of their default on the mortgage payments and the auction sale event that finalizes the transfer of title to the property to the Lender.A short sale is when a homeowner in financial distress owes more against the home than what the home is worth, and the homeowner MUST sell. If the homeowner does not have to sell, or does not want to sell their home, there are MANY options available to homeowners. They could move into a more affordable home and rent out their existing home, they could take on a roommate, they could refinance (although this is not always the best path. Homeowners in a short sale situation are often in financial distress, which means higher rates and fees because you?re seen as a higher credit risk to a new lender), they could talk with their existing lenders to re-configure the terms of the loan. Homeowners who do not want to sell or do not have to sell ought to seek out a HUD-approved housing counseling agency that offers default counseling. Why? Because at bare minimum, SOMEONE, in this case our federal government, has deemed the housing counseling agency competent. What a homeowner should not do is to blindly trust that the signs by the side of the road are from reputable folks. In fact, the assumption ought to be that if a deal looks and sounds too good to be true, it is. There are no angels on earth. Homeowners, you can be easily taken advantage of by these folks. Wake up and keep reading.Selling short means you?re asking the underlying lender(s) to accept less than their payoff in order to facilitate a sale of the home, instead of foreclosing on the home.Foreclosure is expensive for a mortgage lender. Mortgage lenders are not in the business of foreclosing on houses. Banks and lenders are in business of making loans. They don?t want the house back. This is a business decision for the lender. Which means it has to make rational, logical sense.Homeow

Because you might want to think twice about making an offer on a pre-foreclosure, short sale home. It's not as simple as you may believe, and very few can close in 30 days or less.A short sale means the seller's lender is accepting a discounted payoff to release an existing mortgage. Just because a property is listed with short sale terms does not mean the lender will accept your offer, even if the seller accepts it.Be aware that the seller will need to be in default, to have stopped making mortgage payments, before a lender will consider a short sale. Also, the seller might have over-encumbered, owe more than the home is worth, so a discounted price might bring the price in line with market value, not below it.Check the Public RecordsDo your research before making an offer to purchase. Your agent can find out who is in title, whether a foreclosure notice has been filed and how much is owed to the lender(s). This is important because it will help you to determine how much to offer.If there are two loans, you will probably deal with the second mortgage lender. The first mortgage lender's position is protected by the second lender unless the second lender does not want to foreclose. For example, if a seller owes $160,000 to the first lender and $40,000 to the second lender, you cannot offer $160,000 because it will wipe out the second lender.Hire an Agent with Short Sale ExperienceIt's one strike against you if the listing agent has never handled a short sale, but it's even worse if your own agent has no experience in that arena. You need an experienced short sale agent.An agent with experience in short sales will help to expedite your transaction and protect your interests. You don't want to miss any important detail due to inexperience or find out your transaction is not going to close on time because no one has followed up in a timely manner.

I'm a realtor so I have done the comparative market analysis for various customers. So basically you are saying that you believe the fair market value is presented in the meeting of the minds. Therefore, it is the opinion of the buyer and seller. Fair Market Value is a term in both law and accounting to describe an appraisal based on an estimate of what a buyer would pay a seller for any piece of property. There are 3 factors that determine fair market value for a buyer. 1. Location. 2 . Size and 3. Amenities.We are in a buyer's market at the moment. The buyer, not the seller, will determine the price. The problem that I am seeing with FSBO is that the selling price is too high. FSBO sellers are not getting offers. If the price were lowered to what is in sync with the rest of the neighborhood, offers will come in. Also, FSBO sellers spend a lot of money on advertising and are not getting the results that they desire. I did a CMA the other night and after explaining to the seller our marketing strategy. His house has been on the market for over 100 days and he had only 1 offer which he rejected. People worry about saving money and don't go with a realtor to avoid paying the commission. Then they wind up spending all this money and don't get the results that they desire. Buyers, from my experience, don't care about what a seller has or has not done to the house. Some people do not care for granite counters in a kitchen.Even if someone did put down apply for a mortgage on an overly priced home, the bank can always reject this. That is when the red flags come out and the bank will question the seller on the price of the home.That is why I think it is very important to accurately price your home so that it does not sit on the market forever and it is sold within a reasonable timeframe. Even in today's tough market it is still possible to get those offers from buyers if the house is priced to sell.

Acting as your own general contractor can certainly save some money, but it can also lead to many headaches. You and your wife may end up spending more on Excedrin than you actually save on construction costs.Typically, the contractor or builder will mark up the cost of building a house by about 15 percent. If your budget limit is only about 10 percent under the cost that the contractors are quoting, then it might be worth considering being your own general contractor.A reputable general contractor usually has a good long-standing work relationship with the subcontractors, the ones who actually do the work. The general takes care of them and the subcontractors make an extra effort to do a good job on schedule.If you are your own general contractor, the subcontractors will not have the same allegiance, so you can plan on running behind schedule a little. This can eat up at least 5 percent of the savings, thus the 10 percent savings mentioned above.You or your wife should plan on visiting the building site everyday for at least a couple of hours. This is important for you to inspect the construction as well as to keep the subcontractors working diligently.You must have an intimate knowledge of the plans so that you notice any accidental deviations. If you miss something early, repairing or modifying the plans later, to accommodate the error, can use up much of your 10 percent savings.The first item on your agenda is to learn as much as possible about the construction basics of a house. Once you have your preliminary house plans developed, you will know what specific materials, designs and subcontractor types you will need.Armed with this knowledge, contact the national trade associations that relate to the materials and building procedures that you will require. These associations typically have many consumer and professional literature pieces that will be very helpful in quickly bringing you up to speed.It would be wise for you to have a lawyer write u

I understand how you feel. Selling a home is more than just the online research and the comparative market analysis. Marketing is a major factor. Realtors are skilled professionals who know how to market homes and sometimes the average homebuyer does not have access to marketing information that realtors do. We are skilled negotiators and can help get the right price. Sometimes with FSBOs, I have found that buyers feel strange about providing feedback to the owners because they do not want to insult them. Buyers would rather relay their feelings through an agent. There are tools that realtors are equipped with that will sell a home quickly. I am not asking you to give your home away. I did not say to underprice your home. That does not sell a home either. I am asking people to accurately price their homes. Sometimes that means actually raising the price of the home. Everybody knows that a home is an investment. In cases, where you need to raise the price of your home in order to sell it, realtors can offer tips such as staging, landscaping or just basic cleaning. Every neighborhood is different. Some neighborhoods are appreciating in value and others aren't. Every realtor has something different to bring to the table in helping a homeowner sell their home. My approach is to always be honest with my customers when asked about pricing a home. A home needs to be priced to sell whether that means to increase the price or to decrease the price.

Honestly, what if the buyer likes the house and not the garden. I don't think a garden has much impact on a home sale.

Amen to that.

Selling a home is a process. I did read your post. I am not a Florida agent. I have not walked your property or seen your house. I can't honestly give advice to you. What I have seen in my area are homes that have expired. I visit expired listings and have gotten feedback that although they are not ready to put it back on the market now, they will wait until next year. I can't predict what is going to happen next year. I know with my firm, Century 21 Wolff in White Plains, we have broker open houses on Thursdays, we have open houses, we have the sign in the front yard. Our broker, Nick Wolff believes in utilizing the Internet. The homes go on Century 21 Wolff, the Century21 website, and from there it trickles down to the Newyorktimes.com website, our local newspaper website, Optimum Homes which is our local cable provider homes website and realtor.com. Some of our realtors even use craiglist.com and have gotten positive results back. We do use print media every other week for a home. When a home is first listed we do send out postcards to other homes and condos in the area announcing that the home is just listed. That way anybody who lives in an apartment or condo and is looking for a home knows that one is for sale in their area. I not the kind of person looking to make east money or rip a client off. My family has been in the real estate business. My paternal grandfather was a mortgage broker. He liked advising people. He himself was an Italian immigrant who came to this country and made his own way, with help from nobody. He wanted to help other immigrants also. My maternal grandfather was a real estate agent. From them, I have learned to help people. So I have taken everything that I know and bringing it to the table. I hope in some way I can help you. Marketing on the Internet is a very positive tool because that is how most people will start their real estate search. I hope to have helped you in any way I can.