Florida Real Estate Blog

Permits are they Open or not? That is the question that each buyer should have answered before they purchase a home.

How would you know if someone needed a permit? Call the county Building department and they will be able to guide you. So what is an open permit and why should I care?

An Open Permit is any work done on a home that should have been permitted but was not or there is no record of it.

How do you resolve this issue? Again contact the building department of your county and ask for their guidance. In Seminole County you as the buyer would request a permit for the work that had been completed. You would then have to comply with what ever inspection requirement the county has on the build out. Yes that could mean opening up walls.

Can I have the Seller do this? Yes you can but then they cannot sell it for 1 year. So the best thing to do is go forward with the purchase of the home and escrow an amount of funds to support the completion of the permitting process ( that should include some funds for opening walls and replacement of those walls). Keep good receipts and the Title Company or Real Estate Company can hold the Escrow deposit until the work is completed. Once you have your permit and the property is back the way it was when you purchased it and all bills have been paid the remaining Escrow goes back to the Seller.

If this is not resolved at this time you may have to escrow the monies in 5 years when you decide to sell the home.

Pre-foreclosure listings are available if you subscribe to a listing service
that lenders notify once a home owner 3 months past due on their payments. They do not always end up in foreclosure but it is the best list of potential foreclosures. Once the home is identified and selected we can then entertain a Short Sale dialogue with the lender.

This can be a very long process in a home search. You will want to align your self with a lender and go beyond just getting pre-qualified to getting

yourself Pre Approved. You will also need approximately $500 for inspections although in this case the Lender is not paying for any repairs. You are have the inspections done just to verify the needed repairs.

When a FSBO has a home that you as a Realtor believe could serve your Buyers needs how do you handle that opportunity and protect your work and at the same time present the home to your buyer? I suggest a ONE TIME LISTING Agreement. This defines

the commission the FSBO will pay if they agree to sell the home to your buyer. It also requires that you name your Buyer and both you and the Seller sign it before the Buyer is brought out to the home. I also suggest delivery of a blank form to the FSBO well in advance of any buyer to provide them with time to evaluate the form and make sure they

get all their questions answered. At this time you are representing only the Buyer for this entire Sale.

What is it: It is a tool that was used a lot in 2005 early 06, it is a single page addendum that is launched once a buyers agent is informed that there are multiple offers. Remember it is not the Sellers agent responsibility to notify you. You must be asking.

What is its goal: It provides you with the ability to keep your buyer in the game without overshooting the value of a home

How does it work: It defines your offer price. The over price (a dollar amount the buyer is willing to pay over the top of any competing offer). The walk away price (the maximum including the over price you are will to pay for the house).

The key here is the Sellers agent must provide you with a copy of the signed offer from another buyer that supports the new price. At that time the Sellers agent can modify your contract to show that contract plus your over price as the new contract price for your buyer. Once initialed by your buyers you have a deal with contingencies. But you have a deal. Prior to this tool when you had a multiple offer situation what did you do? We would look at the comps and try to toss a dart at a number we thought would win. With this tool you can still come under asking price and win.

Does everyone understand it? No they do not. They are not sure how to handle it. Just remember the Sellers agent has a responsibility to get the best deal for their client. That is defined in many ways. What they should do is notify all parties that we have multiple offers and we will be presenting BEST AND FINAL OFFERS at a specified time. Once they receive all offers they should then select the highest offer with acceptable contingencies. Then compare that to the top walk away Escalatory and its contingencies. The seller will choose the one they feel most comfortable with. Our job is to fairly present all offers. That is the reason for this blog.

Why not: If your buyer cannot comprehend or does not trust that the contract the sellers agent is required to provide us is a true contract. You may not want to use this tool. Otherwise it is a great way to get a hot property for the least amount you must pay.

I.E. May 05 a lovely waterfront home in Oviedo Fl. came into the market early Saturday morning. My wife (and partner) called me with an alert for one or our buyers. I was showing property to another family at the time. She called the other family and we scheduled a time 2hrs later to meet at the home. When I was 10 minutes away our buyers called me in a panic stating that all these families and Realtors where walking through the home. I told them we would be in the house in 10 minutes and I had everything we need in my car. We walked though the home and it was perfect, went out to the car and I said lets pull around the corner and talk. They were pumped and smiling, I showed them the comps (not much activity in this area in the last two years) so I explained that this home would go quickly with many offers. We had talked about an Escalatory addendum before so they where comfortable with the language. We choose our numbers and our contract number and launched an offer.

The Results: They collected offers for two days. Over 20 were submitted 5 of those had Escalatory addendums. Our offer price was Full price $199,900 (remember May 05). We agreed to provide an over price of $2,000 and we had a walk away price of $225,000. The best offer they had was $215,000 so we according to the addendum paid $217,000 for the home.

We won the home and that family has referred over 7 transactions to us since that time. If you want people to say you’re professional, you must understand all the tools.

5 days before closing you should know the following:

Was the Survey completed?

Did we order utilities transferred to us/ from us.

Were the repairs completed? Who has the reciepts

Home insurance is in effect for the closing day.

Know the Closing date and time.

Location of closing

address/directions(in writing)

contact phone number

Final walk through by the buyer. What day and time? Who will open the house? Seller should have all furniture and clean up complete the morning of the closing. Remember day of closing the Buyer owns the home..

Remember the final walk through is just to confirm the repairs have been done and all items you expected to come with the home are in the home. It is also a time to confirm no damage has been done due to the move out by the sellers.

If you are the Seller, review your contract to confirm what you are leaving behind. This can become expensive if you take window shades or blinds that should stay with the home. Cut the grass 2 days before closing.

Seller bring all keys and garage door openers to the closing. Remeber the day of closing is the Buyers so you should be out

prior to that time.

If you are the Buyer review the same contract so you will check those items off as you do your final walk through.

Prior to the closing you will receive a Preliminary HUD (key word preliminary) from the Title Company. This is a document that explains all of your closing costs. Buyer should have a Cashiers Check made out to the Title Company for the total amount that is on the bottom of the first page of the HUD. You can get cashiers checks from your Bank or Credit Union.

How do you feel about this? We would like your feed back. Just hit are email and fire away. This stuff is egoless knowledge transfer.

I read a great article in the Orland Realtor January 2006 magazine about ways you can protect yourself during that very trying time when you are divorcing. Unfortunate during those times are when we feel most vulnerable and the sense that everybody is out to get your really takes hold. Guess what!

ITS TRUE, THEY ARE. ….So whata ya gonna do about it, huh.

First realize that all your debt is common and you cannot duck it. If your X is not or cannot pay bills you both will have credit scores in the 500’s. That means even if you can get another credit card the interest rate could be 23%. Ouch. Same thing for loan on a new or used car. Ouch again. Say you want a Condo to get your life started again. No Way.

Get the picture. What you do in the first couple of months of the separation is critical if you do not want to deal with those issues. So lets list them .

1. Schedule a meeting with your X and an attorney or financial advisor. Prior to the meeting pull your combined credit report (from all three reporting agencies).

Free at www.annualcreditreport.com (you only get one) or all three from the fee based provider at www.creditreport.com

2. Next they should carefully review the way debt division is written in the decree. Vague language such as Petitioner is responsible for the following indebtedness: her visa , her Citibank” creates havoc when the former couple has two visa or Citibank cards because they are all joint. Your may understand which accounts refer to you but the underwriters won’t. Please be sure to clarify everything.
3. You must realize that late payments on any bill will impact both your credit scores. I would suggest creating new individual credit cards and transferring credit balances from the joint cards. This way you can share the debt and relieve the joint cards from late charges. Once that is accomplished you should cancel the joint cards and maintain a paper trail of those canceled communications.
4. We suggest you set up joint monitoring of those joint accounts until they are closed.
5. In the decree make sure you identified birth dates when listing children. This will save the hassle of providing birth certificates at loan application in the future. Guidelines allow child support income to be included only when it will continue for the next three years. In most cases, this is until the child turns 18 or graduates from high school, whichever happens last.
6. Make sure you both have copes of your tax returns for the last three years.
7. Make sure you both have copies of the signed divorce decree and any other important documents (i.e. bankruptcies, birth certificates, account statements).
8. Create a paper trail of alimony, do not hold back any cash, deposit it all in your account each month and then withdraw it. This will support your income when filing for a new loan.
9. If you are applying for a home loan during the divorce most lenders will require a legal separation agreement, especially if there are minor children involved. Lenders want something from the courts to get an accurate picture of potential debt division, alimony, and child support payments. If you are planning on using income awarded in the agreement, you must provide a well-documented history of receiving the income for a period of 3 to 12 months, depending on the lender’s requirement.

Good luck and hope you enjoyed our blog. First ever....