My last post was about Discount Brokers (DB's), and the question of whether the service they provide is worth the reduction of services. My Buyers have a house under contract, and so far have spend nearly $1000 on their Home Inspection, their Termite Inspection and a Well and Septic Inspection. The contract on the home they were selling settled yesterday, and the new house settles on November 30.
If you recall, the Discount Broker thought the appraisal was done...but it wasn't. This week, I checked with the DB on Monday to see if the appraisal had been completed. He told me yes, it had been done on Friday. I asked the DB for the name and phone number of the appraiser, so that I could get a value as soon as possible. The DB replied that he did not have the appraiser's name and phone number because she called him while he was in his car and he just gave her the phone number of the sellers so she could make her own appointment.
(My big push on this is that my Buyers no longer have a place to live in 15 days. I want to know the value to move accordingly.)
The DB replied he had been too busy to meet with the appraiser. As you can imagine, the appraisal came back $45,000 below the sales price - a huge divide between the price the Seller would hope to get and the price he is able to get, according to the Bank.
The DB was shocked by this number. I told him that information wasn't any good if he didn't get it to the appraiser for reference. I told him that my Buyers would request that the sales price be reduced to the appraised price. My Buyers have no additional proceeds to work with.
Could this have been avoided? Maybe, maybe not. What I do know, is that if the DB had made the appointment for the appraiser, had met her in person with comps and a location survey, had a professional rapport with her, that the outcome may have come out differently. These are all things that full service Realtors typically do, and if he had done them I certainly would have felt that his best effort had been made.
So what about the Buyers and Sellers - did the Seller get what they paid for? Probably. Is there a price to pay for saving money? Absolutely. My Buyers house is sold and settled yesterday. They have to be out in 12 days.
Now I get to deal with all the Buyers emotions and worries. They need at minimum a place to rent quickly. Service Service Service. How do you think they would feel if I said "that's not something I do" or "I'm just too busy". Doesn't that just translate into "It's not worth my time"? Glad I have a better conscience and my Buyers and Sellers know that they can rely on me - no matter what.
Comments(0)