L.A. real estate news and insights.
During the stay-at-home order, take advantage of less buyer competition and sellers that are willing to negotiate.
Once the order is lifted, I believe bidding wars will come back and sellers will once again be fully in control.
Look at listings that hit the market after the stay-at-home order was put into effect.
Use date 3/20/20 and after.
These home sellers were fully aware when they put their home on the market that the stay-at-home order was in full swing, and they decided to put their home on the market anyway.
This tells me that these homeowners need to sell, are highly motivated, and are ready to negotiate.
If you have been facing bidding wars over the last year... if you are tired of putting in offers over the asking price... now is the time to strike!
Once the order is lifted, I believe the bidding wars will start again and the sellers will be back in full control.
Some home sellers want to get the deal done and are flexible on their selling price. However, the majority of home sellers are not so flexible.
What I am seeing, based on my own research on the MLS, is that there have been several escrows that have been canceled ever since the stay-at-home order has been issued.
The owners of those homes have either chosen to put their properties back on the market, with the same asking price or have chosen to put their listing on "hold - do not show" status.
Housing data from the National Association of Realtors tend to run about a month behind. Therefore, I expect to get some hard data from them on how today's home prices are currently being affected around May 2020.
On this episode, I answer the following four real estate questions:
1) Are home prices lower right now because of the coronavirus pandemic?
2) Should I submit an offer on a home during the pandemic?
3) Will future home prices fall because of the pandemic?
4) What should be my home selling strategy during this pandemic?
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Residential real estate has now joined the list of essential services during the coronavirus crisis.
Agents can now resume showing property, do property inspections, take listing appointments, etc.
These activities must be done in conformity with current health guidelines. Real estate licensees must follow all CDC and local health mandates.
In addition, no open houses should be held and showings should be done virtually, if at all possible.
Four of the five largest banks in the U.S. have agreed to let California residents skip mortgage payments for 90 days if they have lost their jobs or are struggling financially due to the coronavirus pandemic.
JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and U.S. Bancorp, along with about 200 state-chartered banks and credit unions, voluntarily agreed to waive mortgage payments for California residents who are having trouble paying bills because of the COVID-19 outbreak.
Bank of America has also agreed to waive payments, but only for 30 days👎.
Your mortgage company will not automatically set you up with this plan. You have to call them to sign up!
During your inspection contingency period, take a nighttime drive around the neighborhood of the home you are buying.
If you determine the property is in a noisy area, you may want to consider backing out of the deal using your inspection contingency.
Don't wait to see if there is a lot of noise after you close escrow... it will be too late.
You can still submit an offer on a property right now, but if your offer gets accepted, you can't do any inspections 😕
Before buying a home, check out how noisy a neighborhood it is.
During escrow, the seller will give you a disclosure letting you know that some levels of noise may be acceptable to some, and not to others.
They want you to do your own inspections and satisfy yourself that the noise level is not going to bother you.
If you sign that disclosure paperwork, the seller is protected from you coming back and suing them stating that you never told them about the excessive noise levels of the neighborhood.
On this episode, I answer the following four real estate questions:
1) Can I sue the previous homeowner if the neighborhood where the home is located in turns out to be very noisy?
2) The buyers for my home want to move in before we close escrow. Should we let them?
3) I need to drill a couple of holes to install a security camera outside my condo door. Do I need to have that approved by the HOA?
4) Is doing a final walk through a requirement?
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As long as you and the listing agent agree on the given amount of time, your listing agreement can be however long you want it to be.
When you list your home for sale with an agent, the first thing you need to do is determine how long you are going to give that agent an opportunity to sell your home.
The length of time is determined by you and the agent.
Nothing is set in stone.
You can do a year, 6 months (this is average), you can even do a 1-day listing agreement.
I have done plenty of 1 day listing agreements.
I use that when I want to show a home 1 time to 1 of my buyers.
If the buyer refuses to send cash as their deposit, find another buyer.
Remember, the deposit is sent over within the first 3 days of opening escrow.
If the buyer is this difficult to work with just 3 days in, imagine how hard it will be for the rest of the 30 day escrow period.
As soon as you accept an offer for someone to buy your home, the buyer has to send over an all-cash good faith deposit.
This deposit is typically 3% of the purchase price of the property and is held by the escrow company in an escrow account just in case the buyer breaches the contract and you want to try to collect for damages.
If the buyer wants to send over anything but cash as their deposit, say no!
I have heard of buyers trying to use necklaces, #Rolex watches, and all types of other items for their deposit.
There are a few problems with this.
1) Will the escrow company hold a physical item as a deposit?
2) What is the true appraised value of the item?
3) Is that item real and authentic?
Because so many problems can arise out of this, only accept cash as your deposit.
If the buyer refuses, find yourself another buyer.
On this episode, I answer the following four real estate questions:
1) The buyer for my home wants to use their Rolex watch as their good faith deposit. Is that even possible?
2) How long does a listing agreement usually last?
3) How many homes should I view before buying one?
4) My lender told me I will have to pay PMI. What is that?
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