Smooth Real Estate Transactions Do Happen –
We did the walk thru yesterday at my 1400 Manzanita listing. I met the buyer for the first time, and she raised an interesting point. I’m paraphrasing a little but basically she said:
“I’ve been reading VeryVintageVegas regularly, and YOU SCARED ME TO DEATH with the horror stories of some of the recent closings that you’ve had”. She turned to the sellers and told them “don’t you dare try to extort more money at the end”.
We all had a good laugh, but it got me thinking.
I’m trying to ENCOURAGE my readership to buy a house. The last thing I want is to be scaring you off. Yes, it’s a challenge in many cases to get the loan process finalized these days, but it’s well worth the effort and the frustration if things do go crazy.
Home ownership is still the best path to accumulating personal wealth; having the peace of mind that comes with stable affordable payments; pride of ownership; tax deductions; and what will soon be the norm again, which is slow stable yearly increases in the value of the home.
Even the people I talk to who bought in ‘05 and ‘06 with sub prime loans and are now in foreclosure ask me the same question. “When will my credit be good enough again to buy another home”. Answer: 1 to 2 years.
I just looked back at the 14 closings that I’ve done this year. 8 of them were smooth as can be. Manzanita looks like it’s going to be the 9th smooth one. The other 6 were fraught with twists and turns and roadblocks. But we did get thru them. Some closed a little late, some caused some real panic for all involved. But ALL of them eventually closed.
There’s still 6 transactions on the board that’s waiting to close. One of them is having some challenges, and that’s related to the source of the buyer’s down payment money. It’s not the bank or the appraisal or any of the things that have caused problems on the tough deals. We even have a plan for the problem one, and I’m not afraid that the deal will die, it will just be delayed while waiting for an extra paycheck.
The other day, at the end of the rant, I told you that:
THERE’S A MORAL TO THESE STORIES!
Even though buyers are now buying and the sellers are now selling (at no where even close to what they’d have gotten 2 years ago), the BANKS AND LENDERS ARE STILL MAKING IT HARD TO BORROW.
Whether you’re one of the many people I’m working with, or one of the very many who haven’t contacted me yet, but are reading along while you get ready to…
YOU’VE GOT TO HAVE YOUR DUCKS IN A ROW. You’ve got to have thick skin. You’ve got to have a backup plan in place ahead of your moving date in case things like this happen to you. We’re eventually getting the deals closed, but contract dates and moving truck dates mean NOTHING TO THE BANKS.
The best way to avoid as much of the potential problems as possible is to be working with a truly experienced, dedicated and full time team of real estate and lending professionals. We’ll not only do everything possible in advance so that problems don’t arise, we’ll work diligently, ethically and intelligently to solve any problems that do come up.
We’d like you to choose us as your team. We’d even like you to refer someone to us that you know. Give us a call or send us an email, and we’ll get to work for you.
Tomorrow SHOULD be the closing on Manzanita. So far, not a single whack-a-mole has popped up, and I don’t expect any. Congratulations to another new Vintage Vegas resident.
