Some Agents Just Keep Bidding UP

Some agents get the listing by inflating the value of your house.

Or they may simply go along with “your” unrealistic price without objection. This is what’s known in the trade as “buying the listing.” The agent figures that you’ll eventually give up and give in and place a real price on your property. If you let this happen, it’s really your own fault.

Don’t be fooled! You need for your agent to be straight with you from the beginning. This means you should receive from every agent you interview a “supportable” opinion of value based on recently sold properties in your neighborhood; exactly what you would demand if you were a buyer. An honest agent will give you a “range” in which your house should sell.

If you price your house too aggressively high it will take longer to sell and you will probably will receive less in the end. If you take too long to reduce your price, your house can get stigmatized with prospective buyers wondering what’s wrong because your house has been on the market for so long.

In the end, ready, willing and able buyers  determine value … not sellers and not real estate agents. And sometimes it isn’t even the buyer who determines the price, but rather the mortgage company’s appraiser, who can come in and find a value for the property that is significantly different than the contract price.

Rather than pick an agent based on which one promises you the highest price, why not look at the agent’s marketing plan.  You want an agent who understands and “gets” your house.  I talk to my sellers about how I plan to tell the story of their home and to communicate that story to prospective buyers.  I believe that each property has special qualities that make it appealing to buyers.  In the case of a condo that I sold recently along Connecticut Avenue, the story was the old world elegance of the building and the condo itself. The website that I hosted for the property, www.2737devonshireplacenw.com, brought out that feeling in buyers and it sold within three days with a full price offer.  

Does the agent plan to make a video tour of your home?  We all are so conditioned to twenty second sound bites and visual stimulation! It only makes sense to put together a video tour of your home in order to hook buyers into the emotions of your home.

Don’t sell your home to the highest bidding realtor – Your home and you deserve better than that!

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Waiting a few extra days or weeks to purchase a home this spring could cost buyers thousands of extra dollars as the office of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) implements several changes for loans guaranteed by the Federal Housing Authority (FHA). Coming just weeks before the April 30 deadline for the Home Buyer Tax Credit and just days after the March 31 expiration of the Federal Reserve Board’s mortgage backed securities purchase program (which has kept home loan rates artificially low for over a year), these FHA changes make it even more important to act now to save big.

Here are a few reasons why: On April 5th, the cost of required up-front mortgage insurance for loans guaranteed by the FHA will increase from 1.75% to 2.25%. For a borrower purchasing a $200,000 home with a $7,000 down payment, the up-front mortgage insurance will increase by $965.

Up-front mortgage insurance is typically financed in the final loan amount so the impact to a monthly payment will be minimal but overall, the increase is still borne by the borrower both upfront and monthly. Later this spring, the amount of money that a seller can return to the buyer from their sale proceeds will be reduced from 6% to 3%. The reduction in these “seller concessions” can increase the amount of cash a buyer will be required to pay at closing by $6,000 for a home purchase of $200,000.

There is only one way to avoid being affected by all of these costly changes that lie ahead – submit all FHA mortgage applications by the last week of March.

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