real estate infos

Archive for January, 2011

Room To Ride In Scottsdale Az

If you are looking for a place to spread out in Scottsdale you’ll be glad to know there are plenty of acreage’s for sale.

One thing that is gaining popularity are equestrianfocused housing developments. These highquality communities include common horse facilities. Turquesa Equestrian Estates in Northern Scottsdale is a perfect example of this. A gated community currently under construction Turquesa will have only 18 home site’s. It will feature 17 acres dedicated to open space and common area as well as the Skystone Ranch equestrian center with a 40stall barn lighted arena turnouts paddocks training pens and more. The home site’s themselves will be on 1.5 to 2 acres. Community trails are designed to connect with state land allowing for extensive rides around the countryside. Also included will be a fulltime barn manager so even if you can’t check on your horse every day you can be assured that they are well taken care of. Plus you share the expense of all of this with your neighbors making it easy to own and enjoy horses.

Turquesa is also designed for convenience as the builders chose property close to the freeway in an area not far from shopping and schools.

This property really is unique and Scottsdale deserves it. Previously Scottsdale horse lovers have been hard pressed to find a place to live and kept horses as new developments encroach on previous horse community. Not only that but going for a good long ride has often meant trailering the horses somewhere first. This is ironic as Scottsdale is home to tons of equestrian types including trainers and frequently hosts horse shows.

But since Turquesa has room for only 18 families you might need to look further. There are other properties with plenty of room for horses nearby Scottsdale. There’s Rio Verde Foothills which has a few empty acreage home site’s left just waiting for your vision to develop them. They have water and electricity on the lots. All they need is you to pick a builder and home style. These are licensed horsefriendly properties.

There’s also Sonoran Vista Equestrian Estates which offers 4.5 to 5 acre home site’s. Every once in a while a custom home comes up for sale.

About the writer:  For a full list of the acreages and equestrianfriendly properties available in and around Scottsdale contact Stephen and Alice Proski. Search their Scottsdale AZ real estate listings or find more information about Phoenix area real estate.

Representation And The Home Buying Process In This Market

Representation

Most people just do not appreciate the job of a realtor. Yes while minimal training goes into being a realtor it is none the less training that society at large has come to appreciate. An old law exists that underpins a primary purpose for realtors statute of frauds. It is the adoption by nearly every state regarding this old law from England that governs real estate transactions and that it if it is not in writing it does not exist. There are many paragraphs contained in a standard Real Estate Purchase Contract that each state has adopted peculiar to how common misdeeds and oversights have posed problems in that past. Certain situations that require addressing these things or additional items to a contract to be written up separately on an addendum underscore the importance for some training and expertise so that people do not get exploited.

Now many a transaction has taken place without realtors that have gone just fine which transactions are commonly called for sale by owner. But it is those that dont go fine that sometimes lethal consequences can happen for the unrepresented and all instances do not involve the statute of frauds.

Usually the largest body of investment of money within a persons lifetime takes place during a real estate transaction. They can and do go wrong. Just ask all the people who bought way to high without the help of a realtor who could have warned them about the home being above market value who are now in foreclosure and they will tell you yes most certainly I should have had a realtor. Conversely many more for sale by owners do not know that they have just given their home away for less than what is was worth. By the way many know or have not cared and are less greedy than the rest of us praise be to them. On a personal note as a realtor it strikes me as how amazingly common it is as I even myself was raised with a garagesale like mentality that we expect not just a good deal when we are buying but also when we are selling and somehow call ourselves ethical and AllAmerican. What about the the poor guy on the other side who didnt get the good deal how considerate have we been to them? Yet we appear to have clear consciences all the way to singing Dixie.

The current problems we are having involving the subprime market and with bad lending practices came about because the institution built their projections on untried models. They are now remapping how they do that. Real estate bases its practice off of comparables and ontheground information about supply and demand not off models.

It is precisely because of such circumstances both preserving an otherwise exploited public to market value transactions and the statute of frauds that the value of a realtors profession is honorary and civic in nature and not just about capitalistic salesmanship. It is like having insurance we dont like the coop expense but it protects those who need it. Only in this case all benefit in some way.

Buyer Representation

In most areas the Multiple Listing Service MLS is ran by your Local County Board of Realtors that gives listing access to participating brokerages and most brokerages if not all participate. Youll need to check your local area to see if this is the case. Rules governing listings in the MLS typically specify in the listing or have as there norm a percentage of commission that will be split in some fashion between a buyers agent and a sellers agent. Therefore if the existing rules that govern have gone through considerable trouble to get the seller to put up enough commissions in the asking price to cover both the sellers agent AND the buyers agent you may want to use the system because it has made your representation free.

Now given the current system that while the seller pays both ends when selling and as a buyer they pay nothing there is another way to look at how cost is transferred across the table. If the seller uses a realtor to sell and then uses a realtor to buy it could have been arranged that given an equal sell of home to an equal purchase price with a total of 6 being incurred that a 3 charge is levied for selling and 3 for buying. Only in our current system you pay it all when selling.

This can tend to underscore the importance as a buyer to be sure to defer to your own realtor if you see other realtor signs or other opportunities for things you need information on. This is in the case you plan on using the free representation of a buyers agent provided you on participating realtor sold homes. Thats right free because the Seller has already agreed to foot the bill for your side of representation already represented in the asking price.

Many people will sometimes call the sign in the yard and as the buyer may end up choosing to have the Sellers realtor represent them in states where it is legal. Do people understand fully that that Sellers Agent will get both commission sides those held out for representing his seller and now those for representing you the buyer? So you may want to be careful when choosing to go the sign in the yard route. If you are calling for information you may want to introduce first that you have an agent but that you have some questions. Dont expect the Sellers agent to direct you toward any other representation but what he or she will gain by wooing you with the enticements you now possibly feel for a showing of that property which if in showing it to you you may now tend to a felt sense of obligation toward that agent. Still only at the very end of that trail in having the Sellers agent help you if in making an offer will you find in bold letters the disclosure of such Limited Agency situation which you now find yourself in that you do not have to go that route but are now consenting to it yes but fine after youve inadvertently made that agent do all the work and he/she is holding a pen for you to sign it.

If the Seller represents both sides this is commonly referred to as Limited Agency. Limited Agency is when the agent that represents the Seller is also going to be representing the Buyer. Limited Agency has the following possible disadvantages:

The listing or LIMITED realtor may not be inclined to:

Go after information that can be used to leverage your position as a buyer and there are all kinds of questions a buyers realtor can ask the listing realtor if they are astute to the art of negotiations that appreciates that knowledge is power.

Share with you any reasons why not to buy “this” property.

Negotiate the best price and terms for you because that would hurt the interests of his Seller.

Include contingencies in the contract that protect YOU rather than the seller including standard clauses.

Keep confidential any information that could hurt your bargaining position. This is where your bottomline on price or something else that is confidential unbeknownst to you may have been shared with the Seller.

Remain neutral when taking sides is an option. For example; a parent would never confess to admitting to having a favorite child even if his/her siblings know who the favorite is.

Where Limited Agency is legal there is a possible advantage:

It is possible that you may have less trouble melding terms you know the Seller will accept when his/her agent is also present to help you with yours; typically when you thing you can make your case stronger than the other agent. Although it may not always happen ideally the Limited Agent can try to depict an objective picture of value when it comes to helping you negotiate an asking price. However fiduciary or ethical duties keep the Limited Agent from giving away the Sellers motivations bottom line etc. In other words the agent is bound by fiduciary duty to become less involved in sharing or going after otherwise tedious research driven or privy information. Thus the Limited Agent acts as neutral as possible.

Remember that in most cases having an agent can really help you both in your search process and in being represented well. Now may be the time to become knowledgeable and comfortable with the choice of an agent and thereby in finding your dream home to be purchased.

The above information can depend on the area so check with local professionals deemed by local sometimes national governments to be the appropriate professionals for consulting and doing real estate transactions including disclosure for appropriate professionals in all areas of expertise and confirming or denying any information held in this article.

About the writer:  Brian Habel is an active full time real estate agent with RE/MAX First Realty in St George Utah the fastest growing community in the U.S. for over a 5 year period of 20002006. His background includes both construction and paraprofessional work as a Child Family Counselor making for good people skills sales skills and housing knowledge. He specializes in cutting edge service and technologies for both finding and selling St George Utah Real Estate. Check out Brian’s blog at St George Utah Real Estate Blog.

Real Estate Short Sales

It’s all the talk among the real estate blogs. Have you heard?

I had not written an article on real estate short sales because there is so much out there already. I decided to get up early this morning and see if anybody had written anything that would explain this process to a layperson a layperson in short sales is somebody who owns a home with lots of equity humor.

So what exactly is a short sale?

A real estate short sale is when a home gets sold and the proceeds from the sale “fall short” of what the property owners owes on the mortgages on the home. The banks agrees prior to closing to accept a lesser amount than what it is owned. The bank will do this if it feels it will get more money through a short sale than through the timely and expensive cost of a foreclosure action. The property owner will often consider a real estate short sale when the owner receives assurance from the bank the loan will be deemed “paid in full.” Sometimes though the property owner’s only option is the short sale even if a deficiency judgement results in the process.

Some Short Sale Advice

If you own a home that is highly leveraged read that to mean that you borrowed as much money on it as you could sometime in the past three years and you need to move for one reason or another you need to know that you basically have four options right now:

1. Don’t move stay in the property
2. Lease the home out to a tenant
3. Sell the home on the market
4. Give the property back to the bank surrender the property with a quitclaim or deed in lieu of foreclosure

Because this is an article about real estate short sales we will assume that number 1. and number 2. are not options for you. In order to determine if a short sale is the right solution the next step is to meet with a real estate professional that is an expert in real estate short sales.

Interviewing the Real Estate Short Sale Expert

Once you have determined that you must sell your home and you are concerned about maintaining your credit rating you must interview the best real estate company to successfully work through the real estate short sale. That’s right the correct company. The short sale process is easy to talk about but the reality is that few companies give good short sale advice. Good companies successfully help the property owner through to the very end with complete forgiveness on the loan. Here are some critical issues you should address in the interview:

* DoConduct the interview at the office of the real estate company. Tour the facilities and make sure you are introduced to the team that manages short sales.

* DoFind out what banks with which they have successfully negotiated they should mention contacts in the bank’s Loss Mitigation Department.

* DoAsk for specific sales properties and names that they have successfully concluded a real estate short sale.

* DoAsk for the basis of their short sales training.

* Do Not be concerned with how many homes they sold in your neighborhood unless they were short sales.

* Do Not be concerned with the car that they drive.

* Do Not be concerned with how many homes they sold in the past during the boom market with few or no short sales.

The Real Estate Short Sale Process

First and foremost one must realize that real estate short sales take much longer than “normal” sales. This is because the bank requires a duediligence period to ensure that it is not being taken advantage of and to ensure that it is getting the best return on its investment. I believe that this is fair. But there are things that your real estate company can do to make the short sale process go quicker and that is where experience is the key.

A real estate company with real estate short sale experience will have a kit a package or at least a process to expedite the lenders decisionmaking ability. This package should include everything the lender will need to form its opinion on the real recovery value of the property. Additionally the real estate company giving you short sale advice should be prepared to provide the following information to the lender at first contact Be proactive do not wait for the lender to ask:

* Property Taxes current status and annual amount
* Homeowners Association Annual fees and contact information
* Lawn maintenance current handler contact information and fee structure
* Code violations current status and amount
* Pool maintenance current status and monthly amount
* Utilities current status and monthly amount
* Property Condition current status and deferred maintenance needs
* True saleable value Provide comprehensive market analysis including homes on the market and homes that failed to sell

Once the lenders has made a decision just remember that there are often layers of decision makers at every bank. All agreements must be approved through the lenders legal department and this too adds to the time it takes to close on a real estate short sale.

Conclusion

If you plan on selling through a real estate short sale just understand that it will take some work. In the long run it will be worth the hassle as you will better protect your credit rating and you most likely won’t have to repay as much of the money. The choice of real estate expert could be the difference between success and failure so choose wisely on who should give you this short sale advice.

If you plan on buying through a real estate short sale remember that patience is a virtue. No matter what the home owner agrees upon in the sales contract the bank will be the final decision maker in the process. The bank and the real estate professionals will determine how long the entire process takes so choose your short sale advice real estate company carefully.

About the writer:  Let Leslie Eskildsen REALTOR for Coldwell Banker Previews help you with your Orange County real estate needs.