#Home Inspection - #Listing the property

The real estate process is one that is fraught with pitfalls. The buyer or seller may get cold feet. Another buyer may swoop in with a better offer. The finances may sink the deal. Or, as often happens, the inspection may come back with some unforeseen problems that sink a deal or cost the seller an arm and a leg.

One strategy for avoiding the latter scenario is to have your home inspected even before you put it on the market. Yes, it will be some upfront expense that you won't be able to roll into closing costs, but it could help you avoid a sticky situation down the road.

On the plus side, an inspection will allow you to make sure your home is in the best possible condition before you list it - which means you can get the best possible price. It also means the buyer's inspection, which will have to happen after an offer, can't catch you off guard or seek to take advantage of you with fabricated problems.

On the downside, however, once you know about something and it's listed in a report, you are obligated to disclose the problem before you sell the house. This is annoying with small problems that you don't have time to fix, or with big problems you had no idea about - or budget to fix.

A pre-inspection gives you, the seller, a heads-up if there are problems that a potential buyer will likely want repaired. Once you know what's wrong, you can have those issues fixed before you list. The cleaner and more problem-free you can make your home, the faster it's likely to sell.

On the other hand, let's say you don't have a pre-inspection. During the process, the buyer's inspector discovers problems you didn't know about. You can be sure the buyer will try to negotiate a lower price, which will cost you money and can delay the sale. The buyer might even cancel the contract.

All that being said, the home inspection you do may not always be the same as the home inspection the buyer's inspector reveals. The pre-inspection may miss something. It's not always 100% accurate.

A pre-inspection still is a good idea to know of issues that may come up and being able to take care of those items before listing the property.

 

#Real Estate News!

The Government Wants People to Buy Homes  And to encourage that, they’ve made it a bit easier to do so. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac offer a 97% LTV program for first-time buyers — that means only a 3% down payment, and that money can come from a gift. The 3% down program is now in competition for clients with the FHA’s 3.5% down payment program. This is actually a long-standing offer for first-time buyers, made sweeter this year by the reduction in annual mortgage insurance premiums, ultimately making home buying less expensive. Plus, FHA loans accept credit scores as low as 580 (and possibly lower, for a higher down payment). So there are several programs for Millennial first-time home buyers to choose from. But What Do Millennials Want in a Home? Location, location, location. The location of the home can be almost more important than the features of the home itself. These twenty- to early thirty somethings consider the home’s neighborhood and its proximity to their place of employment to be just as critical as the number of bedrooms. Less space but the right space. Bigger is not better; many Millennials spend little time actually in their homes, which means a smaller property is just fine for them. Because of this, it’s important that spaces in the home have multifunctional purposes. Smaller spaces are also easier to repair and keep clean, which works well with this generation’s desire to minimize upkeep and spend more time enjoying life. It’s not forever. Millennials aren’t getting attached to homes like older generations did; they look at them as a stepping stone and an investment. They don’t plan to stay in the home they’re buying now for more than five to seven years, in most cases (think repeat customer!). A first home is a chance to increase their credit scores and build their borrowing profile for the next property purchase. To these young home buyers, a home is an investment: Keep this in mind as you work with your clients. In a Nutshell  Lower credit scores and less cash for a down payment, but a high motivation factor and a willingness to start small and buy up over time are the general characteristics of the Generation Y home buyer.