Tips for Selling a"Fixer-Upper"

• Don't let a prospective buyer look at your home until it has been prepared for sale. Buyers remember what they see, not what you tell them the house will look like when you're done with the prep work. You could lose a good prospect by showing your home before it is ready.
  
  
  

• Take advantage of the fact that the property you're selling is a fixer-upper. In other words, market it as a fixer. A certain segment of the market is looking for fixer properties that can be improved to increase value. In fact, these buyers sometimes overpay for the perceived potential.
  
  
  

• Don't lose sight of the fact that you're marketing to a limited pool of buyers. Most buyers won't even look at a fixer-upper because they don't have the time, expertise, or resources to turn a property around.
  
  
  

• List it at an enticing price. The list price should reflect concessions made for work that needs to be done.
  
  
  

• Have pre-sale inspections done and make the reports available to buyers to review before they make offers. This will help to minimize the chance of a deal falling apart when the buyer finds out the extent of the necessary work.
  
  

Source: Inman News

If You Get a Prescreened Offer....

Your mortgage originator does not authorize the sale of your personal information by the consumer credit reporting companies (Equifax, Experian, Innovis, and TransUnion)and cannot stop it. But here's what you, the consumer, can do:

• Opt-out of pre-screened offers of credit and insurance by visiting www.optoutprescreen.com or by calling 1-888-5-OPT-OUT



• Exercise caution when you are presented with prescreened offers over the telephone. Find out with whom you are speaking and how the company got your information. Ask for any offers to be sent to you in writing.



• Remember that the mortgage process is complex: take the time to compare products and ask questions.



• Avoid being rushed or presured into a decision.



• Get a second opinion.



• Don't sign any blank forms.

Source: National Association of Mortgage Bankers

Avoiding Mortgage Triggers, Part 2

Applied for a mortgage with a particular loan originator, only to receive phone calls and mail from companies you don't receognize? Here's what to look out for:

• "Bait and Switch": this scheme is run by companies who get business by luring consumers in with low rates... and then switching the loan product


• Solicitations that ***appear*** to be from your curent mortgage company... but aren't. Always confirm who you are speaking with. If in doubt, hang up and call back at your mortgage company's main number.
  
• Requests for PIN numbers, passwords, mother's maiden name, or your social security number.
  

If you believe that you have been the target of any abuse of the system, please report the incident to the Federal Trade Commission at 1-877-FTC-HELP.

Source: National Association of Mortgage Brokers

Avoiding Mortgage Triggers, Part 1

Last February, I discussed mortgage triggers, which are generated when a mortgage lender pulls a borrower's credit history from a credit agency's database.
(See earlier entries here and here)

In the next several listings, I'll discuss how you can stop this practice and facilitate a smooth closing.

First, let's take a look at what happens when a mortgage originator pulls your credit report from consumer credit bureaus (such as Transunion, Equifax, Innovis, and Experian) to obtain your credit score and process your loan application:

• The credit bureaus may place your personal information on a prescreened list (also called a "trigger" list)
  
• Within hours, the credit bureaus may sell the list to hundreds (or thousands) of companies. Your mortgage originator does not authorize this sale of your personal information... and we cannot prevent or stop it.
  
• Shortly afterwards, you may begin to receive phone solicitations for other mortgage products from numbers and companies you don't recognize.
  
• Within days, you may also begin to receive mail solicitations for mortgage products from other companies.
  

Visit again tomorrow to learn what to look out for. Later, I'll tell you what you can do to protect yourself and your identity.

Source: National Association of Mortgage Brokers

Investors Opt Out of Real Estate

USA Today reports that a soft market is making some real estate investors switch back to stocks.

While real estate can be lucrative, says the publication, "it often comes with headaches and hidden costs. Those may have been tolerable when home prices were soaring, but now that prices have stabilized or even started to drop, the annoyances are deal killers."

The paper adds that "some investors want to get out, but fear they're so far in the hole already that they don't want to take the loss."

Read more here.

So does that mean that investing in real estate is a bad idea for everyone right now? Not at all. Some feel that property prices are bottoming out and that it's a buyer's market. But as with nearly all investments, there are no guarantees.

Real estate investors who are looking for a "quick flip" should assess their risk tolerance and ability to ride through rough patchs. But for those who have the resources (and intestinal fortitude) to invest in additional properties and hold them for a while, there are bargains to be found.

Landscape Projects For Home Sellers

Landscaping is a home improvement that appreciates over time.
Deciding which projects to tackle depends, in part, on how long you think you'll be around to enjoy the results.

If you're selling in a year or less, you may want to:

• Edge the beds. Cutting fresh edges where grass meets mulch makes the lawn look well kept. Also, if your foundation plants are overgrown, widening the beds will make the shrubs seem smaller.
  
  
• Nourish the grass. For truly lush turf, ideally you should start regular fertilizer treatments a year before listing the house. But you can green up the lawn with just a single application.
  
  
• Scatter color throughout. Blanket your yard with petunias, impatiens and other small annuals that will flower throughout the current growing season. Also invest a few hundred dollars in some larger perennials and in shrubs that stand at least four feet high.
  

Source: Money Magazine

Contingent-Sale Offers

You're trying to sell your home and a potential buyer has made a contingent-sale offer. Should you consider it?

Contingent-sale offers make many sellers nervous-- and for good reason. A contingent-sale offer typically withdrawing your property from the market for a transaction that may never close. If the buyer's house doesn't sell, the deal is off and you'll need to find another buyer. And you have little way of knowing how salable the buyer's existing property may be.

If you're presented with a contingent-sale offer for the purchase of your home, you do have options. Consider asking that the buyer include a release clause which allows you to continue to offer your home for sale. If you receive an acceptable offer from another qualified buyer, the contingent-sale buyer must:

• remove the contingency within a specified timeframe and
  
• provide evidence that he can close even if his existing property isn't sold
  

If the contingent-sale buyer is unable or unwilling to do so, you are free to sell your home to the other buyer.

Source: Inman News