GRAHAM CENTRAL PROPERTIES is a full service real estate company with experienced and licensed professionals capable of all your real estate buying and selling needs. We always appreciate our loyal clients and their referrals.
Graham Central Properties strives to be the BEST. If a home is priced and staged correctly by an experienced and capable professional, with appropriately aggressive marketing the result should be a successful sale. Capable professionals should be knowledgeable of contracts, amendments, inspections, titles, and mortgage loans.
Buyers and Sellers Beware!
Bad Things Can Happen AFTER a Contract is Signed
Bad things can happen after a contract is signed by buyers and sellers. When it does, you need to be represented by an honest expert rather than a person in a large organization who has very little knowledge and experience.
Some real estate buyers and sellers foolishly believe (1) that a big real estate firm must be better than a smaller firm, and (2) that a signed contract completes the transaction. The following are but a few of the many bad things which have happened after a contract has been signed.
Buyers and Sellers
Both buyers and sellers can suffer if the appraisal is less than the contract price. (The lender cannot disclose the contract price to the appraiser.) Both buyers and sellers can suffer if the interest rate goes up without the buyer locking in the interest rate with the lender. Both buyers and sellers can suffer if the buyer does not choose a reputable lender.
Buyers
Buyers can suffer if the inspection discloses major defects which were not listed on the sellers’ disclosure form, such as a previous fire or a cracked foundation. Buyers can suffer if the survey discloses a flood plain or encroachments. Buyers can suffer if their insurance company discloses a prior major claim for water damages. Buyers can suffer if the title company discloses liens or discrepancies in square footage.
Sellers
Sellers can suffer if they have misrepresented their property to buyers. Sellers can suffer if their real estate agent does not know and prepare for the difference between “pre-qualification” and “pre-approval” of buyers. Sellers can suffer if their agent cannot recognize an open-ended and time-consuming contract by clever and ruthless individuals, posing as “buyers,” attempting to keep seller’s property off of the market for months or years.
To Prospective Clients
Remember that the Number One Mistake made by sellers is to allow an agent to list their property at an unreasonable price, thereby effectively making that property unmarketable. Please let Kyle Graham, with over a quarter of a century of experience as a realtor, and his agents with Graham Central Properties, meet your real estate needs.
Tips for a “For Sale by Owner” owner
Although it is a buyer's market, you want to save some money and not use a realtor. You have had a few scary people come into your home not knowing anything about them, but you remember how much money you are saving without realtor intervention. And perhaps you'll get lucky and find someone who will love your home as much as you want to sell it!
Let's say that you found your buyer. Congratulations. Now, where do you find a contract form to sign? You have confirmed the prequalification for the buyer's loan. You know exactly what to do to turn that prequalification into a "preapproval" followed by a full loan approval. You've read in those "how to" books about loan contingencies, and doesn't the buyer's lender take care of all that during the time you have taken the house OFF the market for other buyers who might be prequalified or preapproved? But you can legally take another contract, can't you? Or can you?
The buyer loves your house, so the inspection should be OK, provided that your full disclosure satisfies the buyer's inspector. Should his inspection offer up issues that you honestly did not know about such as roof or foundation damage, water penetration, or even an air conditioning unit that works perfectly but is older than 18 years, you were smart enough to write "as is" into the contract like "the books" said to do. If the buyer wants to walk away from 20 thousand dollars in repairs, you'll find another buyer as fast as the current one. How long did that take, by the way?
So your research on how to sell your own home has been clear that the final loan approval is contingent upon the appraisal and the survey. Surely, you have developed a relationship with a title company regarding the survey and you know who is paying for it by now. And you are aware of the new restrictions of lenders informing contract prices to appraisers, but still not worried because your house must be worth whatever a buyer is willing to pay at least 60% of the time by an appraiser. Therefore, you would know exactly what to do should your home NOT appraise for the contract price. Also, you would know the consequences should that same appraiser measure something other than the exact square footage you think you have.
Finally, the survey should show whether there is a structural or fence encroachment by you or one of your neighbors, and you would know exactly how to handle the new buyer's insurance company should they question a previous claim that all insurance companies share in a national data bank. Or perhaps the interest rate went up half a point after the contract was signed and even after the preapproval of the buyer's loan. Doesn't that just mean that the buyer will have to pay a little more a month because he didn't lock in his rate?
The reality of having at least a few of these challenges are much more probable than just possible. Should you decide to allow a professional with decades of experience to handle ALL of your real estate needs, please call Kyle Graham, cell phone (512) 656-7111, office (512)452-2000.