Yes,

Our home is entering the end stretch and should close in less than 30 days.  I  have not been the ideal client, I have been moody, particular, not very negotiable, and quite sad.  I tell my clients they have to get to where "this is not your HOME anymore, it is just a property.  Hum, I didn't adjust to that idea too good or fast.  I think I am getting there, but I relapse occasionally and have to go to DQ to comfort myself with a Blizzard.  At this rate I could weigh 200 pounds before we are able to get our new home designed let alone remodeled. 

Oh Well, it is an acreage, I can always lose a little helping to mow, dig thistles, shovel dirt into the new raised beds, side the old garage, help with the new concrete, deconstruct the main floor..... naw. 

This experience has really been an eye opener for me, I am much more in tune with the stress and yes even mourning they go through when they sell a home.

Nicely remodeled older home, new kitchen with tile and oak, new bath with laundry on main. Great open front porch for that morning cup of coffee or for enjoying some lemonade with friends. Come by and take a look at this home, new siding so exterior upkeep is at a minimum and taxes are low, low, low. Patio in back, nice yard and a single car over-sized garage finish out this property. Call Georgia at 712-574-5426 to see this home.

At this price it is a great investment property too!

Are you considering buying a self represented property (For Sale by Owner)? Would you do surgery on yourself? No, Would you represent yourself in a law suit? No But, you think going into a huge financial transaction without the knowledge and skills of an expert could be a good idea???!!!  

Do you know what to ask a FSBO, what to look for in the property, where to get the property records, what other similar properties have sold for in the last 12 months,  do you know what documents a seller needs to provide to you and when? How did the FSBO decide on the price for the home, hard facts or "it seems like it would be worth ______, or I'm moving to _________ and that's what I need to get out of it to be able to buy there, or so and so's across town sold for _________ and ours is nicer?

A Realtor is your representation, your analyst of real estate data, assurance that the legal paperwork is completed and is completed correctly, the one who follows up with the flow of the process to closing. Not to mention your negotiator. 

In the last month I have had the sad experience of having to tell 2 sellers who need to sell they paid too much they both bought from FSBO sellers.  Now they will both take a loss to be able to sell their properties.  I know this isn't uncommon in the large metro areas where the foreclosure epidemic is hitting but it is very uncommon in our area.   

One of the properties didn't appraise for the bank loan to purchase, the contract didn't stipulate it had to appraise and the buyers "Just wanted it", so they paid the difference.  Great for the sellers - big problem for the buyers.  The buyers have negative equity on both.

Would this have happened if they had paid a Realtor to represent them- not likley, a professional licensed Realtor has training in property pricing, legal issues in real estate, complete property disclosures, lead based disclosures and they will do a CMA (competitive market analysis) this will show the properties that are most like the one you are interested in and what they have sold for in the last 12 months,  and last but not least your Realtor is your negotiator.  The Realtor's  goal is to get you the property you want at the best terms possible when dealing with an unrepresented seller. 

Take home - you will end up paying a Realtor to represent you in the purchase of a FSBO but it is money well spent.  On the 2 properties above the money spent to have a Realtor represent the buyers would have saved the them over $27,000 in less than 3 years, that's a 37% return on investment.

Follow the link to read more about some interesting aspects of this bail out for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  This article is by Gail Russell Chaddock and she addresses sub prime loans, minorities and block grants that will be included in the bail out.

I have been reading all I can find on this topic, this situation is the result of a partial ethics problem with Buyers and Realtors, and a total ethics problem with financial institutions, in a word GREED.  For several years I have been telling everyone in this area including bankers, buyers, sellers, Realtors  etc. that most sub prime loans are not a good thing.  Several years ago I had another Realtor get disgusted and tell me that helping buyers who couldn't qualify for a regular mortgage get a sub prime was a good thing! This Realtor's point was that at least they were going to have some equity in their property - HUH???  How??? Zero down, Seller paying closing costs, ARM, interest only loan, in debt up to their elbows, shaky inclome and still spending - where's the equity?

Fortunately, in the area I practice we didn't see a huge number of sub prime mortgages. We are seeing an increase in foreclosures and you can almost bet when you read the papers they will not be listing a local lending institution, they will have some out of state weird financial company you have never heard of. Personally, if one of my buyers can't qualify for a conventional mortgage I advise them to wait until they improve their credit, pay down their bills and save at least some money for a down payment - say 3%. This advice is not usually taken well but it will save them thousands, potentially tens of thousands of dollars.

That advice didn't help my business but it did help me sleep at night.  I take the responsibility to my clients very seriously, I assist them in getting the best mortgage available for their specific circumstances.  Sometimes, that means their good faith estimate is faxed to a number of other lending institutions, remember financial institutions do not have to give the best terms available on a loan.  

 I believe a buyer should negotiate their mortgage terms at least as hard as they negotiated their purchase price. 

This is a challenge to all Realtors out there, If you don't already help Buyers with their mortgages start.  You deal with mortgage terms everyday, your Buyers deal with mortgages what, every 4-7 years?

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0722/p01s04-uspo.html

Check out this short sweet video by Elizabeth Weintraub on how to prepare your home to sell.  Elizabeth has a lot of very good points and she is one of my favorite bloggers. After seeing the video check out her other topics, her site is a great resource for all things real estate. For a detailed system of preparing to list your home and how to efficiently pack give me a call at 712-574-5426. This system works for all types of moves and I recently used it myself when we moved to our acerage. Click on the link below.

http://video.about.com/homebuying/Prepare-House-for-a-Sale.htm

With over 82% of all prospective home buyers looking at homes online before they contact a Realtor your pictures are vital to get people interested in touring your house. An old saying about curb appeal also applies to web picture appeal - Buyers have to stop at the house before you can get them in the house, it is the same with your property on line. If you have no inside pictures, clutter every where, a picture of the bathroom showing an open toilet and a shower curtain, a kitchen with dirty dishes in the sink, pictures with all the curtains/blinds closed (no one wants to buy a dark house) you are batting zero! If your home is listed get online www.stormlakemls.com and look at the pictures and the descriptions of the pictures - what there are no descriptions? Make a phone call and get that fixed asap.
When you are deciding to list your home some things are a lot more important than others when choosing a realtor to represent and sell your property. You are not hiring a Realtor to list your property, you are hiring them to SELL your property and great pictures are an absolute must!

I got a call and then an email from a local banker yesterday informing me they have $5,000 grants available for first time home buyers who qualify.  The funds are limited and are available for only a short time.  If you are a first time home buyer please contact me, I would love to help you find your first home. We have a lot of properties to choose from in Storm Lake, Alta, Early and Aurelia.  To view them go to the Storm Lake mls site - www.Stormlakemls.com and put in the criteria of the home you are looking for or come in and see me at 106 W. Railroad Street in Storm Lake and we can search together for your first home. 

I am planning on making video's of my listings, I like them much better than the picture tours.  Videos also give me another chance to talk about the attributes of the property.  I have several products that I can edit them with but if anyone has one they really love please let me know.  I am really into ease of use and professional end product! I purchased Adobe PhotoShop Elements 6 for my picture editing and really like it - although it hasn't been the easiest to learn.  I am not a manual reader, I like to jump right in but, I have had to go back and do some manual reading and tutorial viewing. 

An update on the posts http://activerain.com/blogsview/324536/Rental-Property-Problem-Need, http://activerain.com/blogsview/339595/Up-Date-on-Rental  http://activerain.com/blogsview/352730/Rental-Property-Problem-Need.  

The story has taken a very serious turn for the worse, the staircase in question (it is actually physically in the first building - owned by the investors) is owned by the adjacent building owner (the one with the apartment at the top of the stairs). 

As unbelievable as it seems, according to the abstract in 1898 the staircase was sold to the neighboring building's owner for $50.  This was discovered when the owners of the rental property had their attorney contact the owners of the adjacent building and inform them they were about to complete the apartments upstairs and they would be bricking up the opening from the adjacent building. 

Very shortly, the adjacent owner's attorney contacted the investors attorney and told him the staircase was owned by his clients and they would be bricking up the investors 2 apartment doorways!

Holy Cow! A staircase inside one building is owned by the adjacent building????  The title opinion missed it, the previous owners were not aware they didn't own the staircase, the listing person was not aware, and the current owners would never have purchased the property had they known about the staircase. There appears to be an easement for the original owners of the staircase to continue to use it.  According to the attorney representing the rental building's owners there is nothing they can do legally to recover the substantial loss they have incurred. I guess we are back to "Let the buyer beware".  All of this doesn't include the firecode problem of having a number of building open to each other.

The 2 attorneys are trying to come to some agreement but this is a very bad situation.  One option the owners of the rental building have is to put in another staircase behind the original one, but that will reduce the rentable space upstairs. 

Anyone ever heard of anything like this, and if you have how was it resolved?  Also, how would title insurance affected this or would it? In Iowa we have title opinions done by an attorney in place of title insurance.

I came across this excellent article from one of the blogs I frequent - By Elizabeth Weintraub, on About.com.  It spells out how financial organizations see a short sale and gives some really good advice when you end up working with one of these homes.  Even after reading this article tread very carefully, this could be a potential mine field legally.  We are not seeing a huge amount of these but the number of foreclosures is rising slowly. 

Elizabeth's article http://homebuying.about.com/b/2008/06/02/will-a-short-sale-ruin-my-credit.htm