As the inventory of for-sale homes remains at low levels, sellers are getting more comfortable at the bargaining table and telling buyers to cool it with the contingencies. In competitive situations that attract multiple bids, some sellers are even telling buyers they want an offer without mortgage contingencies.
A mortgage contingency, often included in sales contracts, provides buyers with a safety net of being able to get out of the deal without forfeiting their down payment in case they are unable to obtain financing within a certain timeframe.
Some sellers are telling buyers they want non-contingent offers — and better yet, make it all-cash too.
“When you have a market that’s heating up, sellers feel emboldened to say to buyers, ‘I’m not going to give you this clause because I don’t want to take the risk that you can’t get your mortgage,” Marc Israel, the executive vice president of the title insurer Kensington Vanguard National Land Services, told The New York Times. “The last thing sellers want to do is tie themselves up with a buyer for some extended period of time just to have the buyer cancel the contract.”
This has put some buyers in a risky spot. If their financing is delayed or denied for any reason — which isn’t that uncommon in a tight lending environment — buyers may be left with having to turn over their down payment.
Peggy Aguyao, an executive vice president of Halstead Property, says in New York it’s not uncommon for even higher bids to be passed over by sellers in favor of lower bids because they are non-contingent or all-cash offers.
Gea Elika, a principal broker at Elika Associates, an exclusive buyers’ brokerage, says his brokerage never advises clients to proceed without a mortgage contingency. For those clients who insist, “we’ll try to go to a major lender that’s preapproved the building in the last three months. Then we may try to find a portfolio lender as a backup.”
Source: “Mortgages: When a High Bid Isn’t Enough,” The New York Times (May 9, 2013)
Are you considering putting your house in {Location_Name} up for sale, but not sure where to start? Afraid it will take too long to sell, or that you won’t get the price you want? Here are 4 tips to get you started:
1.
De-clutter. This is one of the most important things you can do. It might be easier to think of de-cluttering like this – you’re moving anyway, so why not start packing now?
Pack up everything you don’t need and store the boxes out of sight in the garage (or consider temporarily renting a small storage locker).
2.
Organize your closets - put similar colors together, pants together, skirts together, shirts together etc. Why? Because it will make the closets look bigger. (Really.) An organized closet appears bigger, and you want your closets to look as spacious as possible.
3.
Make your home look like a model. You want to de-personalize as much as possible so potential buyers can imagine themselves and their own belongings occupying the space in your house. That means minimizing – putting away everything you don’t need or use. Clear off kitchen counters as much as possible – stash all those appliances you don’t use, and put miscellaneous small clutter in a few attractive baskets or boxes.
4.
Call Nesbitt Realty at (703)765-0300. We can give you objective tips on what you can do to move your property. We even have options for professionally staging your home if you're interested. [l
earn more]
Fifty-six percent of the real estate agents and brokers included in the survey said most buyers are turned off by a home where the home owners have smoked. Twenty-seven percent say that buyers are unwilling to even consider a home in which the home owners smoked.
“Many prospective buyers are really put off by homes that have been smoked in and they can be very challenging to sell," says David Visentin, a real estate professional and co-host of the W Network's "Love it or List it" program.
Source: “
