5 Tips To Improve Your Odds in a Multiple Offer Situation
“Multiple offers? I thought we were in a Buyer’s Market?” Well, it certainly IS a great time to buy in that we are seeing interest rates that are still at historical lows coupled with housing prices that are more affordable. But on the other hand, here in the San Francisco & Peninsula area, we are seeing an increasing number of multiple offer situations. For example, on the last home my clients submitted an offer for, there were 26 (yes TWENTY-SIX!) offers, all of which were put in within the home’s first two weeks on the market! Whatever the reasons for this, it’s become clear that if a home is well priced or below market value, there’s a good possibility that prospective home buyers will find themselves in a multiple offer situation. Here are five tips to help make your offer stronger:
Good News or Bad News?
The other day, I was manning our Prudential kiosk at the Tanforan mall, and a gentleman came up to me and asked how the real estate market is doing. I enthusiastically told him that our office has become quite busy lately and that we’re seeing a lot of activity, especially among first-time home buyers. His response surprised me.
He looked somewhat downcast and said, “Oh, that’s not good…” When I probed a little further, I found that his main reasoning was that he was Read more
Mortgage Protection Program for First-Time Homebuyers!!
Great news for California home buyers! As if the $8000 tax credit, historically low interest rates, and affordable home prices were not enough, the California Association of Realtors Housing Affordability Fund (C.A.R.H.A.F.) is making the pot even sweeter by offering a mortgage protection program for first-time home buyers. Wow!
Back in January, I posted a blog on my personal blogsite (http://budurl.com/5vpd) about the Hyundai Assurance Program (if you lose your job or have another hardship within 12 months, you can give your new car back) and commented that it would be an interesting idea if we could have the same sort of thing for buying homes. The basic idea – buy a new home, and if you lose your job, you can give the home back without penalty. Well, it seems that someone out there was reading my blog…okay, maybe not, but this new program is not too far from the same line of thinking. So what does it entail exactly?
FHA Loans for Distressed Properties?
I’m sure you’ve heard by now that FHA loans are making a huge comeback in the mortage arena. After all, it’s one of the only ways to obtain a loan with a low down payment (only 3.5% which can even be a gift) as well as a less-than-perfect FICO score (currently around 620). One of the main drawbacks, however, has been that the requirements for FHA loans have been a little more stringent regarding the condition of the property. This becomes an even bigger problem when you take into account that many of the more affordable homes now are REOs (bank-owned) or short sales, where the property has not been maintained very well. Well, I just wanted to share with you that THERE’S HOPE! It is possible to get an FHA loan for properties that are in need of some maintenance. How? Read more
Tech Day at Prudential!
This past Friday, we had a Tech Day for Prudential San Bruno agents. This great workshop, thanks to the efforts of Michael Monozon and Mark Hasha, focused on the ever-growing phenomenon of online social media networking. Our main speakers were the dynamic duo of Reggie & Nicole Nicolay, who are quite influential on the internet through their blogging and articles on sites, such as cyberhomesblog.com and mytechopinion.com. Read more
Are Things Looking Up?
“Jean, a conference room is available for you upstairs…Jean, a conference room is available.” Such went a page by my trusty colleague Shokoofeh about a week ago. I was meeting a client in order to submit an offer on a condo, but to my dismay (and some delight too) ALL of our conference rooms were full. Shokoofeh had just finished meeting with her clients, so she was able to vacate one conference room just in time for me and my client. At our company meeting last Friday, one of the brokers mentioned how pleased he was to hear this page and that he was hoping it was a sign that things were going in a positive direction. I couldn’t help but agree. Read more
Is Your Agent a Twit?
Recently, many people in our office have been learning more and more about social networking sites, such as twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, FriendFeed…you get the idea. One of the questions I hear often is, “How is twitter going to help me get more business? What good does it do to let people know what I had for breakfast?” The basic answer for this is that this is just another way to make more contacts, put ourselves in front of more people, and hopefully become known as the “real estate experts” in our area. But another question comes to mind: “How do my clients benefit from the fact that I’m on twitter and other such sites?” Here are some reasons why it might be beneficial to you to have an agent actively engaged in social networking on-line:
YES YOU CAN (Buy a Home)!!
I just met with some new clients for a Buyer Consultation, a complimentary service I routinely offer before going out to view homes with anyone. These clients are newlyweds, just starting out in the home buying process, and they were not even sure if they would be able to buy a home at this point, not having had a chance to save up much money for a down payment yet. With their permission, I also invited a mortgage broker to join us for this meeting, so that they might be able to get a better idea of their situation and what they needed to do in order to prepare for their purchase. Well, at the end of the meeting, they (and I) were excited to discover that YES, it would actually be possible for them to purchase a home in this area and perhaps much sooner than they had anticipated. Read more
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Recent Posts
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