Just another reason to hire a Real Estate Agent… the EXTRA MILE MATTERS!
January 16th, 2010categories: Chico Buyers
By guest writer Tara Taylor, “Buyer and Foreclosure Specialist”
On the surface, it can seem that a real estate agent’s “job” is fairly simple: Write the offer, negotiate the terms, collect a paycheck. However, sometimes there is so much effort beyond the paperwork that goes unseen, and often unappreciated.
I have spent the last week navigating an auction bidding website that had their grips on a condo that my clients really loved. I wasn’t terribly concerned about offering on an auction property, but then I read the fine print on the site. Realtors are known to have a case of RDR (Realtors don’t read) …not this agent!! I sorted through all the legal schmegal language until I found what I was looking for. The fact is I didn’t know what I was looking for. All I knew was that I needed to protect my first time homebuyers and their hard earned deposit! So I found, in the small, ever so fine Q and A section the words “This offer is not contingent upon financing.” Not a big deal, if you have CASH! If you are financing, this is a terribly big deal. If anything were to go wrong with the loan, i.e. the Buyer in this scenario can’t close for ANY reason, they lose their 5% deposit (required by the Auction Company.) Lost, gone… no protection!
This is a good example of why the buyers “hired” me. I had to get to the bottom of the story with a loan on the condo! Would it finance? I had to be 100% sure before letting my clients wager their savings and opportunity to become homeowners. I tracked down the property management, which was not easy to do since no company in town claimed the complex and no agent in town knew who was in charge. With more digging and prodding, I determined the owner-occupied to tenant ratio for the condo complex was only 50/50. According to local lenders, the requirements for lending are now 70% owner-occupied to 30% tenant occupied in most cases.
This is not the property for them. The loan will not go through, and they would have lost their entire deposit. Luckily my reading and investigative persistence paid off! My clients still have their deposit and we can look for another property. Whew!
