Pinetop White Mountain Blog

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Good Morning all you Loyal Readers.  I was thinking this morning that it was time to address some things that Sellers need to be thinking about.  A few years ago Buyers were dropping out of trees and it took very little effort to sell a house.  All you had to do was stick a sign in your yard, put it on the MLS and it was gone.  Well, those days are gone!

In today's market you need to be prepared before you ever put your home on the market that when you get an offer it is going to be very different than what we have grown accustomed to.  The days of easy Conventional Financing are gone.  Today we are once again seeing most loans for most Buyers going through Government insured loans through the FHA. With that change comes changes for you as a seller. 

First and foremost is your home itself. The FHA requires that the house meet certain criteria before they will approve a loan against it.  If there are defered maintenance issues that really should be addressed, you might as well get to it because they will be required before the FHA will approve funding on the loan. If the house you are selling is a manufactured home there are other issues such as a solid foundation and tie downs that will be required. 

Something else you should prepare yourself for is the possibility that the Buyer is going to ask you for a financial contribution toward the Buyer's closing costs.  Those costs can be as low as a few hundred dollars to as high as a few thousand dollars. If the buyers financial resources are limited, the higher amount is more likely. There is no question that the changes in the industry are going to curtail the huge profits of the past, but we are returning to a normal market and the process toward that goal is sometimes not to our liking. 

Buyers are facing many obstacles to purchasing homes as well. They are having to jump through hoops right and left to get their loans past today's extremely picky underwriters. You should also prepare for the possibility that the sale will not close on the date it is supposed to. The Lenders try their best to meet the dates in the contract but they are scrutinizing loans very closely and are often coming up with last minute conditions the buyer needs to meet before they will grant final approval. Add to that the fact that the FHA requrements change almost daily and that the lender is scrambling at the last minute to meet that criteria before the loan can fund.

The only thing you as a seller can do is be patient and be ready to go once that deed records. The loan will close, it just might not do it on our time table. As your agents we do what we can to speed that process along always with the goal of meeting that closing date. But the truth is, when it comes down to the wire the one in control is the lender and nothing we can say or do will change that last minute scramble!   

Real Estate is changing daily. If you listen to the media it is all bad but that simply isn't true. Every market is different. Every market has a different face and different types of buyers. There are still a lot of folks out there who want or need to buy homes.  As a seller, you just need to be aware of the new requirements for loans and be prepared ahead of time to meet them head on. For every home there is a Buyer, it just takes a little longer these days to put the two together.

Have a great Sunday and give us a call if we can help you with the Sale of your Home.  We are at your service, remember.....

"WE WORK FOR YOU!"

Sandra & Bruce Paulow, REALTORS®

RE/MAX Pine Country Realty - Show Low, Arizona. 

(928) 537-9001