Being an Informed Buyer Will Reduce the Stress and Surprises of Your Home Search and Purchase

SEARCHING

1) Homes may be listed as Active, but they may have many offers or they may already be Sold.

2) Homes may be a Short Sale, even if it is not clearly identified.

3) Most home features may not be listed, or may not be correct.

4) The home may be in an Association, even if it is not disclosed; there may be Mello-Roos Tax, even if it is not disclosed; the home may be on leased land, even if not disclosed.

MAKING OFFERS

1) There may already be many other offers and the property may sell above the list price.

2) The listing Agent may have dozens of distressed listings in many areas, and they may know little about any particular home or area.

3) A Bank Owned Home may have an Asset Manager handling hundreds of homes, so a response could take from 1 day to 1 week or more.

4) A Short Sale Could take 2 to 5 months to get an approval, and up to 80% will never get approved. Any updates or responses could take weeks to months. After waiting months, the approved price returned by the bank could be much higher than the list price.

ACCEPTED OFFERS

1) Until it closes escrow, even with a signed, accepted offer, the bank or owner can decide not to sell and any money spent by the buyer for inspections, appraisals, etc will not be refunded.

2) The condition of the property is unknown to the owner and the agents. The buyer takes complete responsibility to pay for and conduct as many inspections that they desire, including but not limited to the physical condition, the association, permits, taxes, etc.

3) Most banks will put in their contracts that the home is sold ‘AS IS’, and they will refuse most repair requests that you make after inspection. Many will NOT even do Termite Repairs.

4) Most banks will put into their contracts that if the buyer closes late, the buyer will pay a daily fee for each day late; this could be from $50 to $250 a day or more.

5) The bank will insist on choosing the Title and Escrow Company, these may be slow, overworked and sometimes inexperienced people working on too many files at the same time.

THE ESCROW

1) The escrow experience for most buyers, agents & lenders may be the most frustrating part.

2) Things that normally take hours may take days.

3) Things that normally take days may take weeks.

4) The buyer, agent and lender can call escrow repeatedly, and things may not speed up.

5) The buyer, agent and lender can visit the escrow office, and things may not speed up.

6) The same information may often need to be given to escrow multiple times.

7) We may deal with many people at the escrow company, and they may not be sure of anything.

DO NOT plan on a specific closing date, no matter how efficient the lender and agent are, the escrow company may slow things down at every stage and the seller may have a final review.

9) At the end of this slow, frustrating escrow, they will still charge you the full regular escrow fee.

10) Upon Close you may only get 1 key, possibly not a Garage Door Opener, or mail box key & No association key for the pool, etc. You may need to buy keys and change locks.

Most of the escrows will eventually close, so try not to let the system that some banks have put into place to sell their properties dampen your excitement for your new home!

Jeffrey Simons ~ Broker Associate – Prudential California Realty 714.746.8103 Jeff@Jeffreysimons.com