According to news media these signs are seen pretty infrequently in today's economy, however, I believe that there just might be a good reason employers are frustrated when hanging out this particular shingle.
If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter, then you are aware that I am currently in the search for an office manager who possesses sound administrative skills. Since the expansion of my business to the Triangle area, I have found that one of the most critical spokes in the wheel of our team's success has been that "key" person who keeps us in line and on-task. We have been very blessed in the past several years with three awesome assistants who helped to take our team's business to the next level, the most recent, allowing us the ability to achieve Chairman's Circle, which is the highest level of closed volume awards that Allen Tate gives to agents and teams. This assistant left us just before Christmas and in my mind, I thought that as soon as the holiday season passed I would be able to put out a post and applicants would flock to my office, resumes in hand, ready to work.
Fast forward to the first of January, I posted, told some close business associates and community influence peddlers and I did receive a short burst of applicants. What I found was that the pool of those searching for these jobs have limited technology experience, despite gains in technology accessibility; a lack of desire to be a "part" of an organization; wanting to simply show up and leave when the clock strikes 5, and no sense of self-motivation; always wanting tasks to be given one at a time. Unfortunately for those folks, this is not how I work and not how I see the majority of successful businesses work.
I am looking for a self-starter, someone who wants to help to grow our team and benefit from that growth, someone who can find answers on their own, who takes pride in themselves and the work that they accomplish, someone who wants something greater than the position they are in, a creative individual with new ideas and better ways of accomplishing things, solution-oriented, positive and helpful. Wow! Is that all?! I know it sounds steep and possibly naive that I can find this fit...however, I have had it before, our team members possess these qualities and I feel confident I will find it again!
If you feel that I am describing YOU, then please send me a message or call me...these are exciting times in the real estate industry and we are poised for amazing growth and I can't wait to share them!
Brooke Cashion
brooke.cashion@allentate.com
336-817-3598
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Monday, February 06, 2012
Who is John Galt? Looks like we could use a present day Galt with this kind of sham...
(CBS News)
Just before Christmas, American workers got a rare gift from Washington politicians - the current payroll tax cut would be extended for two more months.
At the time, both President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner lauded the move to avoid a tax increase for millions of working Americans.
But there's something the politicians weren't bragging about - the fact that they're paying for the two-month tax cut with what has turned into a brand new fee on home buyers.
The new fee is a minimum of one-tenth of 1 percent on Fannie Mae- and Freddie Mac-backed loans, and is likely to go much higher.
It will be imposed for the next 10 years on most mortgages and refinancings and it lasts for the life of the loan.
Obama unveils mortgage refinancing plan
Congress preps Round 2 of payroll tax-cut fight
Budget cuts, fees eyed in payroll tax talks
For every $200,000, it amounts to an extra $15 dollars a month.
It's bad news for Patty Anderson, who's buying a home in Virginia.
Anderson will save a couple hundred dollars from having her payroll tax cut extended but her mortgage broker told her the new fee would cost her almost $9,500.
"I was absolutely startled that it would add up to that much," she said.
The $35.7 billion collected in fees won't go into the Social Security fund to replace the lost payroll tax. It goes to the general treasury where Congress can spend it however they please.
Bill Burnett, Anderson's broker and president of the Virginia Association of Mortgage Brokers, said you won't see Congress' new charge in the paperwork, but it's there.
"It's actually built into this [interest] rate. You would never see the fee as a cost to you," he said.
Burnett said the fee will affect a "very large number" of homeowners.
"Your pocketbook is being raided in order to pay for a tax policy issue decided at the last minute by probably people who didn't understand fully what they were legislating on."
CBS News went to Capitol Hill ask what Congress was thinking when they passed the mortgage fee hike. Boehner pointed the finger at the Senate.
"As you're well aware, this bill came over from the Senate. I don't know how they justified it. We would rather have offset that two-month extension with reductions in spending," he said.
But the Senate blamed the House. And Democrats and Republicans blamed each other.
One congressman, Florida Republican Allen West, said he tried to blow the whistle on the whole thing before Christmas.
"I read the legislation and raised the flag. Unfortunately nobody paid attention to what I was saying at the time," he said, calling the fee a backdoor tax increase on the middle class.
"It absolutely is because you're talking about the homeowners - when you're talking about the people that are gonna be using the Fannie Mae, the Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored enterprises - it is absolutely a tax increase on them."
An Obama administration official defended the mortgage fee, calling it "modest." (Modest to who?!?!?!)She said it's "unlikely to negatively affect borrowers" because increases "will be phased in over the next two years." And it will "help bring private capital back into the mortgage market, which [is] good for borrowers over the long term." I’d really be interested in learning what this means – I guess they are saying that people will go to more conventional loans where the fee is not included? But what happens when they do and the tax does not cover the new payroll extension and/or is this a cover because no one can afford a conventional at 15 – 20%. One place to start is learning how many loans are currently being backed by Freddie and Fannie.
Maybe so. But Patty Anderson only knows that for the next 30 years, she'll be haunted by the Washington ghost of Christmas past.
"I think it just looks like Washington grabbing more money," she said.
Just before Christmas, American workers got a rare gift from Washington politicians - the current payroll tax cut would be extended for two more months.
At the time, both President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner lauded the move to avoid a tax increase for millions of working Americans.
But there's something the politicians weren't bragging about - the fact that they're paying for the two-month tax cut with what has turned into a brand new fee on home buyers.
The new fee is a minimum of one-tenth of 1 percent on Fannie Mae- and Freddie Mac-backed loans, and is likely to go much higher.
It will be imposed for the next 10 years on most mortgages and refinancings and it lasts for the life of the loan.
Obama unveils mortgage refinancing plan
Congress preps Round 2 of payroll tax-cut fight
Budget cuts, fees eyed in payroll tax talks
For every $200,000, it amounts to an extra $15 dollars a month.
It's bad news for Patty Anderson, who's buying a home in Virginia.
Anderson will save a couple hundred dollars from having her payroll tax cut extended but her mortgage broker told her the new fee would cost her almost $9,500.
"I was absolutely startled that it would add up to that much," she said.
The $35.7 billion collected in fees won't go into the Social Security fund to replace the lost payroll tax. It goes to the general treasury where Congress can spend it however they please.
Bill Burnett, Anderson's broker and president of the Virginia Association of Mortgage Brokers, said you won't see Congress' new charge in the paperwork, but it's there.
"It's actually built into this [interest] rate. You would never see the fee as a cost to you," he said.
Burnett said the fee will affect a "very large number" of homeowners.
"Your pocketbook is being raided in order to pay for a tax policy issue decided at the last minute by probably people who didn't understand fully what they were legislating on."
CBS News went to Capitol Hill ask what Congress was thinking when they passed the mortgage fee hike. Boehner pointed the finger at the Senate.
"As you're well aware, this bill came over from the Senate. I don't know how they justified it. We would rather have offset that two-month extension with reductions in spending," he said.
But the Senate blamed the House. And Democrats and Republicans blamed each other.
One congressman, Florida Republican Allen West, said he tried to blow the whistle on the whole thing before Christmas.
"I read the legislation and raised the flag. Unfortunately nobody paid attention to what I was saying at the time," he said, calling the fee a backdoor tax increase on the middle class.
"It absolutely is because you're talking about the homeowners - when you're talking about the people that are gonna be using the Fannie Mae, the Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored enterprises - it is absolutely a tax increase on them."
An Obama administration official defended the mortgage fee, calling it "modest." (Modest to who?!?!?!)She said it's "unlikely to negatively affect borrowers" because increases "will be phased in over the next two years." And it will "help bring private capital back into the mortgage market, which [is] good for borrowers over the long term." I’d really be interested in learning what this means – I guess they are saying that people will go to more conventional loans where the fee is not included? But what happens when they do and the tax does not cover the new payroll extension and/or is this a cover because no one can afford a conventional at 15 – 20%. One place to start is learning how many loans are currently being backed by Freddie and Fannie.
Maybe so. But Patty Anderson only knows that for the next 30 years, she'll be haunted by the Washington ghost of Christmas past.
"I think it just looks like Washington grabbing more money," she said.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Commerce Makes Me Cry...
I spend a lot of time on the road. Actually, that really may be an understatement. Given the nature of my career which demands quite a bit of road time--showing homes, picking up documents, listing appointments from the Triad to Triangle and having an active 11 year old--let's just say the 'ol Honda gets it's fair share of use.
I40/85 has become a new hang-out of mine, as our team recently expanded into the Triangle market after 12 successful years in the Triad. Several days a week I make the relatively short jaunt back and forth from Winston-Salem to Raleigh, passing all kinds of people, in all makes and models of automobiles but most of all, I see lots of trucks! Flat-beds loaded with machinery, military equipment and lumber; transfer trucks hauling livestock (always seems to be hogs), fast-food replenishment and other freight; and a variety of other multi-axle vehicles designed specifically to carry goods across our state, nation and continent. Let's just say, sometimes it brings a tear to my eye...
I am sure by this point you are asking yourself what the heck I'm talking about and if I have finally gone over the edge...is the economy so poor that I am in tears about it's future? Nope, just the opposite. I am moved to get misty-eyed when I think that somewhere in our great nation and most likely in our great state, an entrepreneur has taken the wherewithal, to think up a product that can make his fellow man's life easier or more full-filled. This same individual produces said product, markets it with a fervor and passion that creates a following (desirability) or a need and therefore the demand becomes so great that he must find a way to bring that product to the masses, thus employing the very vehicles mentioned above.
These multi-colored vessels of commerce are daily testaments to our mind and it's boundless energy. We noticed, with a sad tug of something we might not have been able to identify, when truck-traffic temporarily thinned out after 9/11. Something just wasn't right...we could feel it...
As I drive today across the roads and interstates of North Carolina, along one of the most productive and busiest commercial corridors in the nation, I am reminded of my own potential and the potential of my fellow commuters, as we all play an integral part in the strength of our economy, locally, nationally and globally. It is not only inspiring, but it stirs a place in my soul that reminds me, that I'm unique, I can produce and therefore earn, I can influence our economy...and I will...because I'm an American.
I40/85 has become a new hang-out of mine, as our team recently expanded into the Triangle market after 12 successful years in the Triad. Several days a week I make the relatively short jaunt back and forth from Winston-Salem to Raleigh, passing all kinds of people, in all makes and models of automobiles but most of all, I see lots of trucks! Flat-beds loaded with machinery, military equipment and lumber; transfer trucks hauling livestock (always seems to be hogs), fast-food replenishment and other freight; and a variety of other multi-axle vehicles designed specifically to carry goods across our state, nation and continent. Let's just say, sometimes it brings a tear to my eye...
I am sure by this point you are asking yourself what the heck I'm talking about and if I have finally gone over the edge...is the economy so poor that I am in tears about it's future? Nope, just the opposite. I am moved to get misty-eyed when I think that somewhere in our great nation and most likely in our great state, an entrepreneur has taken the wherewithal, to think up a product that can make his fellow man's life easier or more full-filled. This same individual produces said product, markets it with a fervor and passion that creates a following (desirability) or a need and therefore the demand becomes so great that he must find a way to bring that product to the masses, thus employing the very vehicles mentioned above.
These multi-colored vessels of commerce are daily testaments to our mind and it's boundless energy. We noticed, with a sad tug of something we might not have been able to identify, when truck-traffic temporarily thinned out after 9/11. Something just wasn't right...we could feel it...
As I drive today across the roads and interstates of North Carolina, along one of the most productive and busiest commercial corridors in the nation, I am reminded of my own potential and the potential of my fellow commuters, as we all play an integral part in the strength of our economy, locally, nationally and globally. It is not only inspiring, but it stirs a place in my soul that reminds me, that I'm unique, I can produce and therefore earn, I can influence our economy...and I will...because I'm an American.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
For ITIN Borrowers There Is Still Housing Opportunity...
Just an interesting bit of info I acquired in the past 24 hours. There are still lenders out there who will loan to folks that have ITINs. If you are asking yourself, what exactly an ITIN is, then you probably don't or won't need one. ITIN, stands for Individual Taxpayer Identification Number. These are issued by the government to documented workers for purposes of collecting taxes.
If you are a holder of an ITIN you can still purchase real estate in the United States, however, it has become more scrutinized as additional information and documentation is now required on the status of the holder's visa. It can depend on the stability of your employment, debt to income ratio and other fairly standard rules of thumb for discerning qualified buyers.
The good news is that this product still does exist. I had been under the impression that it was gone with the plethora of other boutique loans that disappeared.
If you are a buyer looking to purchase a home and have an ITIN, feel free to call me or email me to be put in touch with our Allen Tate Mortgage representative who can assist you in the qualification process.
Brooke
If you are a holder of an ITIN you can still purchase real estate in the United States, however, it has become more scrutinized as additional information and documentation is now required on the status of the holder's visa. It can depend on the stability of your employment, debt to income ratio and other fairly standard rules of thumb for discerning qualified buyers.
The good news is that this product still does exist. I had been under the impression that it was gone with the plethora of other boutique loans that disappeared.
If you are a buyer looking to purchase a home and have an ITIN, feel free to call me or email me to be put in touch with our Allen Tate Mortgage representative who can assist you in the qualification process.
Brooke
Monday, January 09, 2012
Those Pesky Pieces of Paper...
They're everywhere you turn...in a drawer, dog-eared in a book, stuffed in your wallet or crammed in a file--your subtle attempt at organization and accountability. Yet, every year, it's the same thing, pulling all of those receipts together for tax time. Yup! It's that time of year again. Just when you breath that sigh of relief that the last Christmas gift return is made and you are looking to the upcoming Super Bowl and Publisher's Clearing House Sweepstakes, you remember that there's a stack of paper and Uncle Sam gently nudging you "to get it together".
Each January, Jake and I open our credenza and stare wide-eyed and the file of receipts from the previous year. From donations to business expenses and everything in between we vow that next year, we will start with separate files for each group. But like any resolution, life gets in the way and old habits die hard when you're in a hurry with day to day nuances, so the stuffing begins. It's well-intended at first, so few in the file that you can organize them appropriately next week. Then the file balloons a little during the first quarter and you vow that when you turn in your taxes to the accountant in March or April, you'll reorganize then. Well, you're so exhausted by the rigor that the IRS puts you through, you feel as if you are owed a break--receipts be damned, you can do them over the summer but before half the year is up. Fast forward to "back to school" and getting re-organized for the new school year and the file is already starting to look like it ate a ticker-tape parade. By that time, it's too far gone and you know that you'll just organize it over the Christmas break when you have "plenty" of time. Yea right!
So here we are, receipts of all shapes and sizes. Handwritten notes grace their margins and in reality it's a little like a trip down memory lane when you sort them at one time. A timeline of sorts--your personal year-in-review. Easy to tell if the year was good (fat file) or if it was lean. It's a great time to set goals for business planning, technology upgrades and personal savings. Those tiny, tangible tickets of your memories are there for you to study and assess in preparation for your future while appreciating the blessings of your recent past.
Organizing them throughout the year just wouldn't be right...
Brooke
Each January, Jake and I open our credenza and stare wide-eyed and the file of receipts from the previous year. From donations to business expenses and everything in between we vow that next year, we will start with separate files for each group. But like any resolution, life gets in the way and old habits die hard when you're in a hurry with day to day nuances, so the stuffing begins. It's well-intended at first, so few in the file that you can organize them appropriately next week. Then the file balloons a little during the first quarter and you vow that when you turn in your taxes to the accountant in March or April, you'll reorganize then. Well, you're so exhausted by the rigor that the IRS puts you through, you feel as if you are owed a break--receipts be damned, you can do them over the summer but before half the year is up. Fast forward to "back to school" and getting re-organized for the new school year and the file is already starting to look like it ate a ticker-tape parade. By that time, it's too far gone and you know that you'll just organize it over the Christmas break when you have "plenty" of time. Yea right!
So here we are, receipts of all shapes and sizes. Handwritten notes grace their margins and in reality it's a little like a trip down memory lane when you sort them at one time. A timeline of sorts--your personal year-in-review. Easy to tell if the year was good (fat file) or if it was lean. It's a great time to set goals for business planning, technology upgrades and personal savings. Those tiny, tangible tickets of your memories are there for you to study and assess in preparation for your future while appreciating the blessings of your recent past.
Organizing them throughout the year just wouldn't be right...
Brooke
Tuesday, January 03, 2012
A History Lesson...
Over the holiday break, we decided to take a quick jaunt to Colonial Williamsburg/Yorktown and Jamestown, otherwise known as the Historic Triangle. This is a trip we have been wanting to take Maddie on for quite sometime so we headed north the day after Christmas.
We stopped along the way at Shirley Plantation, one of, if not the oldest plantation in Virginia, still owned 12 generations later by the Carter family. We then arrived to a cold rain in Williamsburg and took in a few of the indoor sites late in the afternoon. We spent the remainder of the evening enjoying some 21st century entertainment, watching NCSU win the Belk Bowl. We also took some time to plan the next few days activities and events so that we could absorb as much as we could in the short period we were there. One of the events we planned was a lecture with Patrick Henry which was to commence at 10 am at the Governor's Palace gardens.
We arrived early only to find out that Patrick Henry was under the weather and George Wythe would be speaking in his stead. It all worked out as Mr. Wythe elaborated on the importance of a classical education being made available to the nation and the necessity to keep laws short in length. His recommendation was to keep them down to one page or less to avoid "unnecessary mischief" being embedded subsequent pages. The particular bill he was upset about was a whopping 41 pages filled with all kinds of irrelevant fluff, imagine what our founding fathers would have thought about some of the bills that are passed today, such as health care reform!
The education portion of his lecture was very interesting, for it did not go into detail over what should or should not be taught, however it focused on educating our nation in the skill of thinking for oneself in the classical manner, questioning, debating, basic reading, writing and arithmetic. It struck me how wound-up today's educational system gets over content of text books, zoning and redistricting, when such a large majority of our students don't have the basics mastered. The detriment, described Wythe is that a government that allows for ignorance is one that is doomed for uprisings and class warfare. Our current educational system certainly provides the notion that all are or have the ability to be educated, but as we well know, this education is very "surface" and the lack of depth and true self-improvement has created a society that knows more about the latest video game or Hollywood gossip than the very system that allows or limits our basic rights.
I could ramble on about this at length, however, my point is that the trip opened our eyes up to the challenges the budding country had and the challenges that our current nation still faces. It also further reinforced the notion that our government was established not to dole out rights like rewards or provide us with everything we need to survive on a daily basis, however it was established to make sure that no one or government could encroach on our basic rights. This was configured so that nothing could stand in our way as citizens who were using their minds and bodies to create a better life for themselves. It was not originally contrived as a crutch on which to lean out of lack of ingenuity and effort.
We could all use a little more "schooling" on our country's foundation and three days did nothing but "whet" my appetite to educate myself more on this subject. If you get the chance, jump on 85N, head over to Petersburg, check out the battlefield and Blandford Church, take Scenic Route 5 which winds with the James River and then head into the Historic Triangle for a step back in time.
Brooke
We stopped along the way at Shirley Plantation, one of, if not the oldest plantation in Virginia, still owned 12 generations later by the Carter family. We then arrived to a cold rain in Williamsburg and took in a few of the indoor sites late in the afternoon. We spent the remainder of the evening enjoying some 21st century entertainment, watching NCSU win the Belk Bowl. We also took some time to plan the next few days activities and events so that we could absorb as much as we could in the short period we were there. One of the events we planned was a lecture with Patrick Henry which was to commence at 10 am at the Governor's Palace gardens.
We arrived early only to find out that Patrick Henry was under the weather and George Wythe would be speaking in his stead. It all worked out as Mr. Wythe elaborated on the importance of a classical education being made available to the nation and the necessity to keep laws short in length. His recommendation was to keep them down to one page or less to avoid "unnecessary mischief" being embedded subsequent pages. The particular bill he was upset about was a whopping 41 pages filled with all kinds of irrelevant fluff, imagine what our founding fathers would have thought about some of the bills that are passed today, such as health care reform!
The education portion of his lecture was very interesting, for it did not go into detail over what should or should not be taught, however it focused on educating our nation in the skill of thinking for oneself in the classical manner, questioning, debating, basic reading, writing and arithmetic. It struck me how wound-up today's educational system gets over content of text books, zoning and redistricting, when such a large majority of our students don't have the basics mastered. The detriment, described Wythe is that a government that allows for ignorance is one that is doomed for uprisings and class warfare. Our current educational system certainly provides the notion that all are or have the ability to be educated, but as we well know, this education is very "surface" and the lack of depth and true self-improvement has created a society that knows more about the latest video game or Hollywood gossip than the very system that allows or limits our basic rights.
I could ramble on about this at length, however, my point is that the trip opened our eyes up to the challenges the budding country had and the challenges that our current nation still faces. It also further reinforced the notion that our government was established not to dole out rights like rewards or provide us with everything we need to survive on a daily basis, however it was established to make sure that no one or government could encroach on our basic rights. This was configured so that nothing could stand in our way as citizens who were using their minds and bodies to create a better life for themselves. It was not originally contrived as a crutch on which to lean out of lack of ingenuity and effort.
Brooke
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Appraisals Setting Market Values? New Trend?
There's always a first. First closing, first fall-through, first family transaction...you get the picture. There's always a first and usually it's not the last, just an indicator of things to come or a flashing warning sign of things to never involve yourself in again. Sometimes you see the red flags and despite years of experience, you fail to heed them. Surely, you think to yourself, this can't be what it seems. Well, usually it is. Walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, again, you get it.
Because I deal with clients from all over the world, I have learned that past real estate experiences in other locations tend to color the transaction that the client and I are currently involved in. Sometimes good, sometimes bad. Poor market conditions, including a glut of inventory, plummeting prices and poor professional guidance can create negative residual reactions for future transactions. Stay with me.
Poor market conditions in another state, coupled with life-decisions being made regarding retirement and downsizing made my buyers paranoid about real estate values and rightfully so. Their home, a once stable investment, did not quite bring what they felt it should in today's market, leaving them with a sour taste in their mouths. Per our conversations, their real estate guidance back home was non-existent. When I asked questions about marketing, contingencies, financing options, etc. they looked at me as if I were speaking parseltongue.
Fast forward...we find a house here that meet their needs and is in the price point that they would like to be in. We have viewed over 50 homes in the past year while their home has been on the market, always toying with the idea of buying before the current home sold. Now that it was under contract, time was of the essence in regards to finding a place for them to rest their heads. Now keep in mind, we have viewed tons of homes in a variety of areas, all similar in spatial needs and between a certain range. We have now located one, which according to my past experience, should mean that this is the best home that the buyer has seen, in regards to condition, location and pricing...(that's how homes make it to number one on a buyers' list).
Time to make an offer. Rather than sit down and look at comparable homes that are active (we have seen all of these) or take an in depth look at similar homes sold in the past 90 days, these folks ask for an appraisal. Wow! Didn't see that coming! I am used to negotiating a price based on what the buyer and seller feel the home is worth in today's market, getting it under contract at terms everyone can live with and then "verifying" the price and terms with a certified appraisal. This seemed all backwards--but was it?
The question that I am taking away from this experience is multi-faceted...Who sets the price? What is happening to fair market value in an era of government regulated loans and appraisals? Since when did buyers and sellers not feel like they have the information to make decisions without being dictated by a third party who knows nothing of their personal needs and real estate desires?
The biggest problem I see with this "new" direction is the lack of comparable homes that appraisers have to work with. If there are not three similar homes sold in the past 90 days then appraisers are digging to find homes that are close in proximity but may be quite different for a variety of reasons. You may say "well they are going to have to do it for the bank appraisal anyway" and you are right, but its funny that once a sales price is set between buyer and seller, unless it is way off base, comps are usually found and adjusted accordingly. It's this "pull a value out of the air" using any homes that the appraiser may personally deem reasonable, that I am trying to wrap my mind around.
So the question begs to be asked...What are your thoughts on pre-appraisals and do you see this as something you would consider doing or is the notion that you are buying the best house out there for you and your family's needs enough to base price on?
Until Then...
Brooke
Because I deal with clients from all over the world, I have learned that past real estate experiences in other locations tend to color the transaction that the client and I are currently involved in. Sometimes good, sometimes bad. Poor market conditions, including a glut of inventory, plummeting prices and poor professional guidance can create negative residual reactions for future transactions. Stay with me.
Poor market conditions in another state, coupled with life-decisions being made regarding retirement and downsizing made my buyers paranoid about real estate values and rightfully so. Their home, a once stable investment, did not quite bring what they felt it should in today's market, leaving them with a sour taste in their mouths. Per our conversations, their real estate guidance back home was non-existent. When I asked questions about marketing, contingencies, financing options, etc. they looked at me as if I were speaking parseltongue.
Fast forward...we find a house here that meet their needs and is in the price point that they would like to be in. We have viewed over 50 homes in the past year while their home has been on the market, always toying with the idea of buying before the current home sold. Now that it was under contract, time was of the essence in regards to finding a place for them to rest their heads. Now keep in mind, we have viewed tons of homes in a variety of areas, all similar in spatial needs and between a certain range. We have now located one, which according to my past experience, should mean that this is the best home that the buyer has seen, in regards to condition, location and pricing...(that's how homes make it to number one on a buyers' list).
Time to make an offer. Rather than sit down and look at comparable homes that are active (we have seen all of these) or take an in depth look at similar homes sold in the past 90 days, these folks ask for an appraisal. Wow! Didn't see that coming! I am used to negotiating a price based on what the buyer and seller feel the home is worth in today's market, getting it under contract at terms everyone can live with and then "verifying" the price and terms with a certified appraisal. This seemed all backwards--but was it?
The question that I am taking away from this experience is multi-faceted...Who sets the price? What is happening to fair market value in an era of government regulated loans and appraisals? Since when did buyers and sellers not feel like they have the information to make decisions without being dictated by a third party who knows nothing of their personal needs and real estate desires?
The biggest problem I see with this "new" direction is the lack of comparable homes that appraisers have to work with. If there are not three similar homes sold in the past 90 days then appraisers are digging to find homes that are close in proximity but may be quite different for a variety of reasons. You may say "well they are going to have to do it for the bank appraisal anyway" and you are right, but its funny that once a sales price is set between buyer and seller, unless it is way off base, comps are usually found and adjusted accordingly. It's this "pull a value out of the air" using any homes that the appraiser may personally deem reasonable, that I am trying to wrap my mind around.
So the question begs to be asked...What are your thoughts on pre-appraisals and do you see this as something you would consider doing or is the notion that you are buying the best house out there for you and your family's needs enough to base price on?
Until Then...
Brooke
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