Top ten seller mistakes when it comes to real estate contracts:

1). They accept more than one contract and get sued for non performance. 

2). They accept an offer from home buyers who have given them a sob story to get the home seller to lower the price of the home.  They also neglect to get a real estate appraisal or check current comparables which will inform them of house price appreciation.

3). They accept an offer from home buyers that do not qualify for the loan.  They waste their time thinking that they are going to closing and have taken steps to move out, only to find out shortly before closing, at or after closing that they are NOT Closing.  If the contract is not well written, the seller may have trouble getting out of the contract.  In which case they may have trouble relisting the property in the multiple listing service (mls) and obtaining another offer.

4) Not read contract clearly and had no idea that they would get less money at closing, no money at closing or owe money at closing.

5). Sellers signed a contract that they did not have a clear understanding that they were paying for they new home buyers closing costs, home warentee, home inspection, termite, mold and radon inspection, first three months of mortgage and lawn service for the first year.

6).Sellers neglected to use the seller disclosure form.  This is form required by law for real estate in most states.  It is an opportunity for the home seller to state what they know is wrong with the property.  If the seller neglects to tell the home buyer what is wrong with the property they may be liable to make repairs after the sale.  In extreme cases they may be forced to purchase their home back and pay damages.

7).  The seller has agreed to for sale by owner finance.  The seller has the brilliant idea of selling the home and keeping the profit of the interest rate for themseles.  Not a bad idea, unless the buyer does not have a job, credit, income or assets, or has provided a significant enough deposit to file a case against the buyer.- You will start to see more of these cases, as fewer people qualify for loans.  Home sellers are taking matters into their own hands.

 8). Seller neglected to disclose that their was water damage or other hazard and the buyer wants out of the contract.

9). Seller does not have money to close and is sued for non performance.

10). Seller misrepresents facts about the real estate for sale or school district and is sued for damages.

Their are top Realtors who are available to provide expert real estate help and guide you through the process.

 It is very challenging for a real estate broker to get everything in the transaction correct, how is a home seller going to avoid mistakes with a real estate contract if they have no prior experience. 

, house price appreciation, for sale by owner finance, real estate appraisal, search real estate, real estate industry, home buyers, real estate for sale, sell a home, realtor help, top realtors,

Just a month ago, I wrote a post called The Scoop on real estate in Copper Mountain Colorado.  In that post I was pretty upbeat about the market, despite terrible reports from other parts of the country for more than a year now.  I did express some concerns for the middle part of the price ranges, and I talked about how many Sellers have been way too optimistic, and although I didn’t use the it, greedy might have been a good word to use. 

A couple of days ago, I looked at the number of sales for this year so far, and compared them to the same time last year.  What I found was that sales for the first 3 1/2 months at Copper Mountain were down by 45% from the same period a year ago!  That is a huge decrease, and it is double the decrease of 22% in the rest of Summit County as a whole.  Projecting that decrease through the rest of 2008, we could end up with only 58 sales this year, compared to 115 for 2007.  What I have seen is not so much that there are fewer Buyers, but that there are fewer Buyers willing to pay 38% more than a similar property sold for a year ago.  We have reached a point of price resistance, and that seems to be $550 per square foot.  The only newer, two bedroom condos at Copper that have sold for more than $500,000 are in Passage Point, where they are bigger, and Copper One Lodge, which is just steps from the lifts.  In Tucker Mountain Lodge and Taylor’s Crossing, many Sellers have tried, but to date, none has been successful (except for one extra large, two bedroom, lock-off condo that sold for $526 a square foot). 

Realtors are often accused of creating overheated markets by suggesting prices that are too high to the Sellers they are working with.  I really have to take issue with that, as I have seen both good and bad markets, and consider my job to be interpreting the market to Sellers and Buyers; not creating it out of whole cloth.  I look at past sales, then the trend in the market at that time, and offer up my suggestion to the Seller.  Sometimes it is accepted and often it is not.  Sellers almost always think their home or condo is worth more than I think.  I am much less emotional about it and am able to look at very concrete things like square footage, upgrades or lack thereof, and amenities. 

My interpretation of the market today (and it could change tomorrow!) is that Sellers should be pricing at or very near similar units that have sold within the last six months.  A condo with ski slope views is not comparable to one with highway views, but as long as location is taken in to account, the condos themselves are all pretty similar in buildings of the same age.  Buyers are very cautious, asking for past sales and looking hard for value.  Of course, unless the purchase is cash, an appraisal will be required by the lender.  Because of the recent mortgage mess, I find that loan officers no longer know who the appraiser is and therefore have no control over how the appraisal is done.  Appraisals are ordered by an entirely separate department and it is intentionally kept at arms length.  With no pressure exerted by loan officers, Sellers, Buyers or Realtors, appraisals are going to be based very firmly on past sales.  If the appraiser doesn’t find the value, the Buyer won’t either.   And if I don’t find the value, a Buyer will not either. 

The sales numbers I am seeing at Copper remind me a lot of the market of 2001 and 2002, when condos were selling for 7 to 15% less than people bought them for just a year or two prior, when they were brand new.  The big difference is that today we don’t have the inventory levels we had then.  Instead of 160 units on the market, we have about 58, and in order to have a declining market, you need much more supply than there is demand.   We have a little more supply, but not the three year inventory we had back then.  In the first half of 2002,  the only way to sell a condo at Copper Mountain was to sell for much less than Sellers wanted to get.  When you are standing at the end of a long line of condos for sale, the only way to move to the beginning of the line is have the lowest price.  It is not that bad today, even though the sales numbers are similar at this point in the year.  We don’t have the speculators in the market now that we did then.  We do have a few sellers but for the most part, second home owners  can afford to hold onto their properties until prices improve again.  It is not as if they have been transfered to another city and have another home to buy. 

In the last downturn at Copper, there were some Realtors who thought they could artificially prop up the market by arbitrarily pricing everything high so that Buyers had no choice but to pay the prices.  Of course, it didn’t work, and it won’t again.  Sellers who want to sell will reduce prices until someone sees the value and buys it.  No matter how bad the economy, there are always people on the lookout for a bargain.  My advice to Sellers is; if you want to sell your Copper Mountain condo, price it to sell.  If you are interested only in getting a premium price for it, take it off the market if it hasn’t improved by July and put it back on when the market starts heading up again.  Buyers, get out there and buy, because the plateau in prices is a great time to get your Copper condo, and perhaps you can find that deal you are looking for. 

More posts that might interest you;

Ten years of Summit County home prices

Ten years of Copper Mountain condo prices

The Center Village at Copper Mountain

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Stumble It!

So the other day I get this email:

—–
From: Harrison [management@phreaker.net]
Hello,
We’ve have visited several online auctions. We are very interested in your domain name.
Just email me your price and we will consider it.
Of course, domain reselling is not a main direction of our business (we develop software). But domain aftermarket is hot now, so we are always interested in domain names.
Looking forward to do business with you.

Regards,
Anthony Harrison
COO
PDS Consulting
Wow I think to myself, I just registered this domain. This will turn a tidy profit for little actual work.
In the art of scamming, this is considered the introduction. While little more than a precursor to the bait, this helps to bring the mark/target (me) into the scam.
So I reply:

—–
The domain in question is currently listed for sale at Sedo
Per their user agreement
Please kindly read the topic: which I have cut and pasted here.
Sedo works hard to provide the Internet?s #1 domain marketplace. Soliciting domain sales outside of the Sedo marketplace for the purpose of circumventing fees that would otherwise be due to Sedo is strictly prohibited. This includes using user contact information obtained from Sedo or using any of Sedo’s services or features to offer to sell any listed domains outside of the Sedo marketplace or sending unsolicited commercial email offers to bidders that have bid on your domains, or any domains listed on the Sedo marketplace.

As you can clearly see, for all domains listed at Sedo that I haven’t already been in negotiation with a buyer before posting them for sale at Sedo’s site, offers and sales are required to be handled through Sedo
Please make an offer via the domain purchasing utilities at Sedo.
I?m certain you can understand my reluctance to offer anything that might constitute a business arrangement outside of Sedo for this domain.

Thank you,
Kevin Oedekoven
If this was a legitimate buyer, I would have expected negotiations to proceed through Sedo, or at the very least (for a complete novice) an email asking for details on Sedo and a request on how to proceed.
Instead of following my request (not a good thing if you’re really interested in making a sale) the response that follows doesn’t even follow simple bait and hook rules of a well articulated scam, rather its both the bait and the hook to this scheme.

—–
Kevin,

Can you accept 12000 USD?
Do you sell domain with a web site or just the name?
Domain without content is ok with me. Web site is not necessary.
Have you had your domain names evaluated in the past? I mean domain appraisals.
Without valuation we cannot be sure in the sale price. It’s very important for me in terms of reselling too.
But we must engage a valuation company with REAL manual service. So I will only accept valuations from independent sources I trust.
To avoid mistakes I asked domain experts about reputable appraisal companies.
Please check this posting from archive:
If, for example, the valuation comes higher you can adjust your asking price accordingly. It will be fair. I also hope you can give me 12% - 15% discount.
After you send me the valuation via email (usually it takes 1-2 days to obtain it) we’ll continue our negotiations.
What is your preferred payment method: Escrow.com, International wire transfer, PayPal.com or something else?
Hope we can come to an agreement fast.
Looking forward to your reply.
Wow, bait (12000 USD) and hook (go here to get an appraisal - which costs money) in one punch.
And bad form to boot.
Apparently this guy doesn’t understand my views on appraisals (see articles above this one.)
So I ask myself, Why would an appraisal need to be paid for? And why not use Sedo?
The only answer possible is that somehow the individual I’m dealing with likely gets a cut of the “appraisal” (note the quotes) proceeds.
And that’s exactly how this scam works.
After the appraisal is paid for, the “buyer” (again with the quotes) will at best quietly go away. Or he might scam you into getting appraisals on other domains in your portfolio before slipping back into the anonymity of the net.
So this is obviously a scam, how do I make this guy go away?

—–
Please direct all domain name related requests through Sedo.

Thank you,
Kevin
End of story.