Ways for Two or More Individuals to Hold Title Together

Stewart Title San Diego has provided this useful breakdown of how more than two individuals to hold title together. Note that the information concerning ownership vesting is for informational purposes only. Contact an attorney or CPA if you desire advice regarding a specific manner of holding title to property.

Request for Repairs

Many times a home is purchased after a few showings where the buyer gets comfortable that the property will meet their requirements without necessarily extensively reviewing the physical condition of the property. After offer acceptance normally a home inspection takes place where the buyer hires a professional inspector to analyze the property and prepares a written inspection report.  A quality inspector will carefully examine the property and write a detailed report of its condition. It is important to note that the vast majority of homes are not perfect,  even newly built homes.  There are going to be small items that have to be dealt with, the Request for Repairs process is one of the important aspects of having a quality buyers agent represent the buyer through the home purchase.

Lookup Realty has complied a list of San Diego based home inspectors that you can interview.

From time to time the inspection report turns up something  significant both in terms of cost and time to repair to the point the buyer may elect to cancel the contract (note that some purchase contracts may not have an inspection contingency, buyers should discuss this in detail their agent).  Generically speaking items under 1% of the purchase price aren’t considered too major.  On smaller items the seller and buyer will probably be able to reach an agreement.  In general, the buyer should have a justifiable reason to ask for a request for repairs more than 1-2% of the purchase price along with a collaborating non-biased third party report from a professional company with a good reputation.

Some buyers may try to adjust the purchase price with a request for repairs because they may feel the price they agreed to is too high. It is much harder to get a price reduction with a request for repairs, then negotiating  during the offer and counter-offer process.  Buyers should try to give themselves a cushion upfront by negotiating a good price.  So if the inspections reveal problems, the buyer is okay paying to fix the problems on their own. Sellers, who feel like they have already given a lot of ground negotiating the offer, my take an “as is” mentality- and won’t make any repairs.

In a request for repairs anything that could be viewed as an improvement or upgrade to the property will probably be declined by the seller. For example asking for the seller to include a new hot tub because you have plans to add it yourself.

Items within the property that are reaching the end of their useful life may be included in the request for repairs.  For example if the inspection reveals the water heater is 20 years old and has a year or two of life expected before likely failing at a bad time the buyer may want that addressed as part of the property purchase.  Anything at the end of its useful life should be included in the request for repair if buyer’s assumption was that all systems in the house were in good working order when presenting the offer. Anything found to be broken or not functional is clearly eligible to be added to the a request for repairs in a traditional residential sale. If there are any questions buyers and sellers should discuss in detail with their respective agents.

The Request for Repairs Process

Sample Request For Repairs Form

Once a buyer’s offer is accepted the inspection contingency begins. The standard inspection contingency is 17 days, though it can be made shorter or longer during the offer process.  Inspections should be completed by the 10th day mark so there is plenty of time to read and evaluate the reports and to allow time for the buyer’s agent to prepare the request for repairs. Once the inspection contingency is up, the seller may issue a notice for buyer to perform (NBP) giving the buyer two days to comply or the seller has the right to cancel the escrow. In the sellers NBP, they will be asking for Contingency Removal. Contingency removal is active in California, this means that once the contingency period has expired contingency are NOT removed. Contingencies are only removed when contingency removal form is delivered to seller or the seller’s agent.

In many cases the seller probably won’t want to send the notice to perform the moment the inspection contingency expires. This is because most escrow periods are quite a bit longer (30-45 days) than the contingency period so if the contingency removal process is running slightly behind schedule that won’t affect the close date. This is an important transaction, and if you as the buyer have been diligent to schedule inspections, and have shared the reports with the seller to show them findings from the report that require further investigation the seller is likely going to be flexible in giving the buyer more time. As long as the transaction is moving forward most sellers will give a few grace days to either allow inspector to finish or the request for repairs to be presented.

The process for request for repairs works similar to the counter offer process for the purchase agreement. The buyer may ask for the seller to repair items, or provide a credit to closing costs/purchase price reduction in lieu of repairs:

Request for Repairs Section 1

 

Request for Repairs Section 2

The seller may accept the request, reject it, or modify it:

 

 

 

Short Sale in 2012 before Expiration of Debt Forgiveness Act

Homeowners considering short selling their property should give careful consideration to doing so soon as Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007 expires at the end of 2012.  Properties should be listed in time for closing before the end of 2012.  A typical short sale takes 2-4 for months to negotiate.

While it’s conceivable the law could be extended there are no guarantees.

More Details on the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007.

If you are underwater on your mortgage and considering a Short Sale, get it listed right away!  Your final closing HUD must be dated no later than 12/31/2012 to qualify for your debt forgiveness.  Consult your CPA or financial advisor and get your property listed and CLOSED in 2012.

The Home Purchase Process

Below is a very nice visual representation of the home purchase process.  Contact us to get started on your home purchase.

44 Types of Escrow Turbulence

The below list is not all encompassing, but it catches most of the common issues we might run into upon reaching an accepted offer and opening of escrow.

While some of the items are “picky” to some, they are very real and fearful to others. Please take a few

minutes to review the list. As your REALTOR, we see ourselves as the pilot of your plane.

Our job is to assist you in gettingyour real estate transaction closed on time and with the fewest aggravations. We can’t promise you no turbulence, or that other parties to the transaction won’t try and pull a few stunts, but we can promise you that we will utilize our experience and expertise to take you on the smoothest flight that we can. And if we do hit turbulence, we won’t bail out on you. We’ll be your teammate throughout the flight, until we get you safely to your destination. Rest assured your advocacy is our number one goal, and that means you must be delighted with the product and service we deliver beyond your expectations during the process.

The Lender:

1. Lender does not properly pre-qualify the borrower.
2. Lender decides last minute they do not want to proceed with the borrower.
3. Lender wants property repaired prior to dosing.
4. The market raises rates, points, or costs.
5. Lender requires at last minute, a second appraisal.
6. The borrower does not like the fine print in the loan documents that are received 3 days before the scheduled closing.
7. Lender loses a form or misplaces the entire file.
8. The lender does not simultaneously ask for all needed information from the buyer, they ask for information in bits and pieces.

The Buyer:

9. Did not tell the truth on the loan application.
10. Did not tell the truth to their agent.
11. Submits incorrect tax returns to lender.
12. Lacks motivation.
13.  Source of down payment changes.
14. Family members or friends do not like the house buyer chose.
15. Is too picky regarding condition of house.
16. They do not execute the paperwork in a timely manner.
17. They do not bring their money to escrow via a cashiers check.
18. Job change, illness, divorce, or other financial setback.
19. Comes up short on money they stated they always had.

The Escrow/Title Company:
20. Fails to notify agents of unsigned or unretumed documents so that the agents can cure the problems.
21. Fails to obtain information from beneficiaries, lien holders, title companies, insurance companies, or lenders in a timely manner.
22. Lets principals leave town without getting all necessary signatures.
23. incorrect at interpreting or assuming aspects of the transaction and then passing these items on to all parties such as lenders, buyers, and sellers.
24. Loses paperwork.
25. Incorrectly prepares paperwork.
26. Does not coordinate well so that many items can be done simultaneously.
27. Does not find liens or any oye problems until last minute.

The Seller:

28. Loses motivation (i.e. job transfer did not go through, etc)
29. Illness, divorce, etc.
30. Has hidden or unknown defects that are subsequently discovered.
31. Home Inspection reveals average amount of small defects that the seller Is unwilling to repair.
32. Removes property from the premises that the buyer believed was included.
33. Is unable to clear up problems or liens.
34. Last minute solvable liens are discovered.
35. Seller leaves town without giving anyone Power of Attorney.
36. The notary didnt make a clear stamp when notarizing the seller’s signature.
37. Seller delays the projected move-out date.

The Appraiser:

38. The appraiser is not local and misunderstands the market.
39. No comparable sales available.
40. Appraiser delays (too busy, etc)
41. Makes important mistakes on appraisal or brings tn value is too low.

The Inspection/Termite Company:

42. Too picky with conditions and “scares” the buyer.
43. Makes mistakes.
44. Delays Report.

Why Staging is Crucial to a Successful Sale

Turn on any popular home network on cable TV and you’ll find a program on staging.

Re-arrange your furniture, pick a soothing color palette, clear out the family photos, and your home will sell faster, and for more money. Sound too frou-frou to be true?

It’s not! The soft and decorative side of staging is backed by hard facts.