How To Handle Offers On An Overpriced Home !

Finding the right house for a buyer can be tough, not only on the clients but on the realtor as well. When you opt to use a Buyer Broker it can be a bit easier but sometimes the only thing standing between your and your new home can be a seller.

When you choose to use a Buyer Broker they may show you homes that are priced above your price range, and you may wonder why, isn't that a tease since you can't afford the price. Remember just because a home is listed at a certain price it does NOT mean it is worth what the homeowner may want for it! Sometimes an agent will not take the time to educate a homeowner about the current market prior to listing the home or they may opt to go with their gut on price, this makes it much harder on all involved but it does happen.

When it comes to a home that is over priced in any area the negotiations can go a few different directions but will always require patience and strategy when it comes to putting in an offer. You will of course want to review the comps in the area carefully with your Buyer Broker, because you will want to be confident in your price being fair. Putting in a offer below the market value will make negotiations much harder, because your leaving a bigger gap between what you want to buy it for and what they believe the home is worth. When your agent presents the initial offer that is when you will normally find out why the home has been priced higher than fair market value.

Once your agent has put in your initial offer that is when you will begin to be to strategize what kind of negotiation style you will use when it comes to how you will counter.

If the homeowner comes down to a significantly lower price point it is a sign that their agent is educating them about what their home is actually worth in the current market. You will want to do the same with your counter in order to show them that you are a serious buyer! If your only around $10,000 apart in price sometimes offering to split the difference between is fair and will sometimes get you an accepted offer ! Remember whether the home is over-priced or fair value your best way to get an accepted offer is to put yourself in the sellers shoes!

If the homeowners barely budges off their price, either their agent has attempted to educate them with no success or they simply think the home is worth more as well. The conversation between your Broker and the Listing agent will clear up which one is the case.

This is where things can require quite a bit of patience, sometimes your best bet is to back off of a seller and give them time to sit on the market, and see for themselves that no one will buy their home for that price. It is a risk when you do this, and you should only do this if you have tried presenting at least 2 reasonable offers and your still significantly far apart on price. By far apart I mean over $20,000 and if the seller has not given reasonable counter offers !!

You will also want to be sure your agent keeps in contact with the listing agent, you don't want to wait to see a price reduction on MLS because than you may find yourself in a bidding war because of other buyers looking at the new price ! You shouldn't stop looking at houses either while you are waiting out a seller. Many times I have buyers who look at quite a few other homes in the interim and it helps puts in perspective what their money can buy. You may decide that your willing to pay a bit more than you originally decided for a home, or you may find a better home !

Once the homeowner has had sometime sitting on the market you will than see if they really want to sell their home, or if they were just putting it out their to see what would happen.

Before you place another offer on the house schedule another showing with your broker to go and see it again, ideally when you know the homeowner is going to be home. You want them to know your still interested in their home in case there agent doesn't remind them of your previous offers !!

Make sure when you present your next offer don't skimp out make sure that your agent reminds them of all the details of your offer.  You may still need to do a bit of negotiating but again patience is key ! If the homeowner is still not being reasonable you may have to continue to wait it out, you may end up finding a better home but I'm always certain for every buyer is the perfect home !

Most people think the number one reason to use a Buyers Broker is so that you don't over pay for a house, but that is not actually the most important. It's not always about making sure you don't overpay but also about making sure you don't miss out on a home because of trying to under value someone's home. The best reason to find yourself a Buyer Broker that you trust is actually to make sure you don't miss out on a home that would be a great fit for you period.

Listing Your Home, What You Should Know !

This week I am going to write about something I don't talk about very often which is sellers who are new to the process of selling their home.  Now some of you might be thinking this doesn't apply to you but it just might so I have compiled a quick list of sellers that is a sign you should take the time to read this blog:

• You purchased your first home from a For Sale By Owner 
• You have not sold a home in the last 5 + years 
• You inherited a property or are an Executor of an estate 

One of the most important steps to selling your home is the paperwork, not only signing it but reading it and understanding it! I can't tell you how many homeowners who have not sold a home recently are very surprised by the amount of paperwork that now goes along with listing your home. 

NYS Agency Disclosure 

New York State requires that anyone who is buying/selling a home fills out the agency disclosure paper, it clearly defines who it is that the Realtor is working for.  Obviously you will sign that the agent will be working for you, but NYS has changed with the times and they now address Dual Agency before it exists.  

Dual Agency is when your agent works for both you as the seller, but also works for the buyer.  This can sometimes cause a conflict of interest, if the deal requires negotiating it can blur the lines of who your Realtor must disclose what to.  It is my recommendation that when it comes time for you to sign this piece of paper that you require if Dual Agency exists that it is Dual Agency with a designated sales person.  What this means is if a buyer walks into your home and wants to negotiate a deal that your Realtor will have an agent from their office work for this buyer rather than representing both sides of the deal.  

Multiple Listing Service Contract

This is a very important contract for you to read most Realtors will tell you it is standard and direct you straight to the bottom to sign.  They are correct when they tell you it is a standard form, but you should be reading it because this is the detailed description that will be on not only on MLS but all of the additional websites that your home will be listed on.   

You want to check certain things in particular: 

1. Taxes are correct (Ex: If your taxes are not correct you may end up with a buyer who is unable to purchase because they were mis-informed, remember pre-approvals do include the yearly taxes)
2. Make sure the number and descriptions of rooms are correct (Ex: If your kitchen is an eat in kitchen, you must make sure it is accurately inputted. These are things buyers will be placing in their search criteria and you wouldn't want a oversight to cause potential buyers to not see your home.  
3. Be sure your floor plan is accurately described (Ex: If you have an entry hall, or a laundry room you want buyers to know that because these might be important to them)
4. Utilities are described completely (Ex: Some people will have a preference when it comes to these things, again you never want to misrepresent your home, even a simple mistake can turn off a buyer) 
5. This last one may upset some Realtors, but the 2nd page of your MLS Listing agreement is where it shows what the commission will be, and where it will be going.  Remember there are 2 sides to every deal if your agent has told you that they will be taking a 6% listing because they split it equally with the buyers broker make sure that it is written that way in your contract.  

Exclusive Listing 

This is something that you may or may not see, if you are listing your home on Multiple Listing Service you should not be signing this paper unless there is a beginning and an end date filled out.  I will sometimes hold a listing as an exclusive until I have the pictures uploaded, & the virtual tour online but when I do I always write that the end date is at the homeowners request.  You might wonder why I do this, and it is just the way I run my business I want to make sure that my listing is up to not only my standard but to my sellers as well.  Once the homeowner sees the listing and approves it we than release the listing onto MLS for it's big debut !! 

Property Condition Disclosure 

The property condition disclosure is pretty much self-explanatory, it is a semi-large packet that details the history of the property.   Most Realtors, and your Real Estate Attorney will recommend that you do not fill this out. Instead you at closing you provide the buyer with the  $500 opt out credit.  The reason we recommend you do this is to simply protect yourself from future liability, even the most knowledgeable homeowner can be unaware of hidden issues in their home.  

Lead Based Paint 

If your home was built prior to 1978 than you are required to fill this out, and your Realtor is required to give the buyers a informative booklet about Lead Based Paint.  This is a common form that you, the buyers, and all Realtors involved will need to sign and is required.  If you are not sure what year your home was built it is always better to fill one out to be on the safe side.  

Seller Services Guarantee 

Unfortunately not all companies offer this, but if you are going to list your home I would recommend not signing with a company that does not provide you with one.  This is your guarantee that the Realtor will provide you with all the services he/she agreed to do in order to get your home sold.  It also gives you the ability to walk away from the contract with them if they are not providing all the services, I can't tell you how many unhappy expired clients I come across because the Realtor did not do what they had assured the client they would do, always remember that you have your guarantee and if your Realtor isn't doing the job perhaps they need to be reminded of that guarantee.  

Now, I have to take a moment to remind you that in order for you to be able to hold your Realtor accountable for the work that they are supposed to be doing, you must also do your part.  Mis-communication about the marketing plan for your home, can often cause a strained business relationship between Realtor and homeowner so you want to go over the details prior to signing anything.   

Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage does have some additional paperwork that your average Brokerage does not have.  The reason is very simple, we are not your average company we offer additional services to our sellers that not only get their home sold but to make it a easy and enjoyable experience.

Affiliated Business Agreement

If you are one of my frequent readers than you have heard me talk about all of the additional services we are affiliated with.  For today I will not be going into the description of them, but I will link the appropriate information so you can look at the ones you may not be aware of.  Our affiliated business agreement, is to let you know the different companies and services we offer but we as agents do not profit from our buyers or sellers using them.  The reason each of these are so important to our company as a whole is the difference it makes for our clients.  

Coldwell Banker Mortgage Company

Coldwell Banker Home Warranty

Coldwell Banker Title Services & Insurance

Coldwell Banker Concierge Services

You will also receive a copy of your Comparative Market Analysis, be sure you keep this in your file for future reference.  Also make sure you keep full copies of everything that you signed, as well as additional paperwork you may sign during the time your home is listed.  Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, does have a system set up on a secured server that will store copies of all the paperwork you will accumulate during the transaction.  This is a great tool for someone who is on the road for work,  lives out of state, or just prefers keeping documents stored online rather than filed away.  


I hope everyone finds this blog helpful, if you have any additional questions please always feel free to comment and I will respond to your question as quickly as possible ! 

Relocation & Choosing The Neighborhood That Is Right For You!

Deciding on a home in any town is a hard decision, especially when there are so many homes on the market.  What could possibly make this decision any harder..... when you aren't decided on a town! There are a few reasons this sometimes happens to buyers. Most common is that they are re-locating from out of state, this is something that I come across quite often since we work directly with Cactus Relocation.  We have clients from outside of New York, that might have a particular kind of home in mind but not a town.  Another instance is when a client has to change their search to other towns because they are looking for a very specific kind of home. 

Now back to the topic at hand, how do you decide on what town you will search for that new home of yours in? Well the first step is to decide what is most important to you! So here is just a few quick questions you should ask yourself to help narrow down your search! 

• Do you need to be in close proximity to your work ? 
• How close do you need to be to transportation ? (Buses, Trains)
• Are there certain amenities that you need/want to be close? (Pools, Parks, Marinas, Beaches)
• Are you looking for a specific style of neighborhood? (Incorporated Village or Township)
• Is school district important (Ratings, Teacher:Student Ratios)

Every town here on Long Island is unique, but this is exspecially true here on the South Shore of Long Island.  We have homes that range from $100,000 to over $1 Million Dollars sometimes only a few minutes away from each other.  Every town on the South Shore offers some unique characteristics. If something like having an area to dock your boat is not a priority than a town made up of mostly waterfront homes may not be for you.  If you like to take advantage of the outdoors and hiking than someplace near some of our state parks would be a great area for you.  If your not from the South Shore you may not be aware of what certain towns offer as far as schools, entertainment, restaurants, or even the history of the town.  If you are planning on living in this home for the next 15-30 years these are things that I am sure are important to you, I know that they are important to my clients.   

Sometimes there are circumstances where someone needs to move to be close to family members, this is where the normal rules for relocation gets thrown completely out the window, sometimes even the kind of home no longer matters.  When this happens I always recommend you get a broker involved immediately, because this is where time is the most important.  Looking at a home where the sellers have not found their new home yet means it will be a longer waiting period to get into the house.  A Realtor will be able to find out all this information with just a phone call.  

Technology has made it very simple to find out about a town and what they offer but I have decided to take it one step further for my clients, and my readers I have created a informational newsletter.  It is not only a great resource for the potential homeowners, but for those that have decided to go ahead and buy a home in one of our communities.  In each newsletter it gives you the address's, phone numbers, and teacher information for the schools in the community.  I have taken the time to compile some of the restaurants, parks, marinas, entertainment spots that are popular along with other web links that you can use to get to know more about your new town and where things are located  Lastly I give you some background about the community that you are moving into, interesting tidbits of gossip like if anyone significant lived in the town.   

Here are just some of the towns that have available newsletters, you can find additional newsletters on my main page under the "About The Neighborhood" Column.

Amityville

Babylon

Copiague

Deer Park

Lindenhurst

North Babylon

West Babylon

West Islip

If you are looking for information on a specific town, but do not see the newsletter please feel free to email me and I will be more than happy to get the information for you.

Now let's talk about all the paperwork that goes along with buying a home, your sending and receiving paperwork constantly and all the while you are trying to pack away paperwork that is already in your home office.   It is inevitable at some point you may misplace or pack away something that you didn't mean to.   Do not stress, every piece of paperwork that goes on in your transaction is loaded onto a safe & secure website allowing you access at anytime! 

Next up,  you have found the house but now you need to hire movers, painters and most important hooking up all your utilities so you have power/lights/cable when you get to your new home!  In order to make sure our clients have the most pleasant experience my company has taken the time to find qualified and highly recommended professionals to get the work done for you.  This our Concierge Service, these professionals can not pay to be on our lists it is strictly based on the quality of work that they do for our clients, they must be certified in their field and insured! We offer alot of services to our buyers to help them in their home buying process everything from Mortgages, Title, Insurance.  

I pride myself on helping my clients get into that perfect new home, as quickly and stress free as I possibly can!

I hope these newsletters are helpful to those re-locating to our wonderful South Shore!