It's not an unusual question for a seller who has a buyer under contract. When they list the house for sale, the seller alters their lifestyle to accommodate multiple people viewing their home at all hours of the day and night. When a buyer is under contract, it's a relief. Privacy at last! However, a new round of visits begin, as the buyer has inspections, an appraisal, relatives, contractors, and a final walk through as they prepare to make the house theirs. Seller begins to wonder when it will ever end, and wants the buyer OUT of the house!

Rule of thumb (for buyer's agents) when the house is occupied, discuss in advance with your buyer the etiquette of visiting the house, and group your visits to make the most of everyone's time. Unexpected events will come up, and there may be need to schedule one more trip, but an experienced agent and buyer can accomplish most of their needs with a total of three to four visits before the close of escrow. This will help immensely with the buyer-seller relationship. It's hectic for both parties, so buyer's agents — help your clients plan in advance and assume the sellers would like the least amount of interruption possible.

Visit one - See the house for the first time.

Visit two (after the offer is accepted) - Group your inspections (ie., home, pest, roof) for one morning or afternoon and, if you're thinking of remodeling, bring in your contractors to bid.

Visit three - The appraisal - use this as your backup time if there are further inspections needed or you need one more thing that can't wait until the walk through. However, rarely will you have a much, if any, warning when the appraiser is coming. Most appraisers prefer to not have buyer, seller, or agents present during their visit.

Visit four - The final walk through to verify home condition approx. the week escrow closes. If your seller has kindly made time to review the property's features and show you the how-to's, respect their time. It's not required that the seller meet with you, so if they offer, be considerate. Most sellers aren't present for a walk through, and if so, use this time to measure the refrigerator space, doorways, windows for new window treatments, dimensions for carpet, etc. Invite parents who have been dying to see the house you're buying, and give them a tape measure so they can be of assistance.

Selling or buying a home is very exciting and stressful for all parties. Buyers are excited about their new home and want to start planning before the dust settles. Sellers have just as many details to coordinate and moving is extremely stressful. Buyers camping out across the street pointing at the house and yard for hours each weekend, or walking by with relatives in tow will only add to the stress.

New Freddie Mac policy will help real estate agents obtain "reasonable" compensation for short sales. Effective Aug. 1, 2009, Freddie Mac states:

Unless a real estate broker's sales commission exceeds 6% of the property sales price, Servicers must not,
as a condition of the Servicer's acceptance of an offer, renegotiate the real estate broker's sales
commission to an amount that is lower than the amount that was originally agreed upon between the
broker and the Borrower. In the event the sales commission exceeds 6%, the Servicer must renegotiate the
commission to limit it to 6% of the property sales price.

Click here to view news release in its entirety.

Prior, rarely did a lender allow more than 5% comission to be shared by cooperating brokers, but often any shortage not anticipated when the approval process began then fell to the agents to pay out of comissions. Basically, if your short sale took 6 months from submission of offer to close of escrow, and the seller accumulated expenses and debt against the property during that six months, any expenses not made aware to the bank at the start of that 6 months wouldn't be provided for or authorized by the bank. For example: On a $500K transaction, if the bank limited the commission to 2.5% maximum, this allowed a $12,500 maximum commission for the agents to share. Then, if the sale expenses/debt exceeded the authorized net by $5,000, either the transaction could not close or the agents sacrificed $5,000 of their commission.

There still may be deficit on short sales, but with the ability to obtain a minimum of 5 to 6% commission per transaction, it definitely helps agents successfully close transactions and remain in the black.

Come tour this new listing! We're holding it open on Sunday (8/30) from 1-4pm.

For more details, click here. To view the virtual tour, click here.

Our attorney advises us that the fair housing law indicates that there are guidelines for the number of people who can live in a property. Fair housing laws allow for two people per bedroom, and one person for a living area. Therefore, if your duplex is a two bedroom, theoretically up to five people could reside in the unit.

When you have a number of adults living at a property, take into consideration the number of vehicles that will be parked at the address. One thing often not considered is if four adults rent a two-bedroom duplex, they will likely have four or more vehicles. As a property owner, clarifying in your lease agreement where vehicles can be parked will help avoid disagreements with neighbors.

Hot new listing! This is a short sale, but it doesn't look like it! Very well maintained home that is move-in ready.

Ray is holding it open Thursday (tomorrow) from 4 to 6 pm. Stop by then to tour it!

Click here to see the virtual tour.

Click here to view the listing on our website.