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North Andover, Andover, Methuen, Haverhill and Merrimack Valley MA Real Estate home sale and home buyer representation.
Working together on
your real estate goals.
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Ron Carpenito's
Prime Property Team
powered by:
Keller Williams Realty
168 North Main St
Andover, MA
Mon-Fri 9:30-5:00 EST
Sat-Sun By Appointment
617-797-8710 Mobile
978-269-5425 Office
978-327-5182 Fax
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Selling Your Home? You'll Sell It 3 Times!
We've all read the headlines and seen the reports that home sales are slowing and prices have leveled or continue to fall. This is certainly true in the Merrimac Valley with the amount of home sales down and the median sale prices off their highs. Selling a home today, or anytime, is never a guarantee and the odds are even lower than just a few years ago. There are simply more homes to choose from and less buyers you're competing for. So it may frustrate you even further to learn that when trying to sell your home you'll actually need to sell it three times before the deal is completed!
This situation begins with a Buyer Agent. Most home buyers today are working with a Buyers Agent to help them identify, negotiate and work on their behalf to secure a home. The Buyer Agents job is to help the consumer buy a home, never "sell" them one. During this process the Buyer Agent is mostly concerned with the property fulfilling the clients needs, pointing out property flaws in condition, resale value and potential pitfalls, and most importantly providing comparables and advice on value to negotiate the property on the best possible terms for the buyer. The problem for the seller is in that last point. If buyer agents come across homes that are overpriced or in poor condition for their price, they will recommend that the consumer pass on the home, express their dissatisfaction with the offering, or most often not even recommend the home in the first place. So clearly you will need to first sell your home to a Buyer Agent to recommend the home to their clients.
The second sale is the one we most commonly think about, that's selling the home to the actual buyer. Today buyers are much more in tune with the home purchase process. They have access to information like never before. They can see all the home sales that have taken place, all the homes that are currently for sale, research mortgage rates, educate themselves on communities and with the internet, most of the time look right inside your home with photos and Visual Tours. All of this access to information has lead to a shift in the process and mindset of finding a home from one of selection to one of elimination. That's important to understand. Buyers are eliminating homes online and with their agents, deciding to look at only at what is left! So clearly you'll need to attract and sell your home to a buyer in more ways than one, before they even come to view the home. Once at the home, they of course need to love it enough to place an offer.
So now you have an offer on your home, and finally an accepted contract at an agreed upon price and terms that both parties are satisfied with. You may think you are coming into the home stretch at this point since the buyer has agreed to pay the price, right? Wrong!
It is obvious that the majority of all home sales will require the buyer to obtain suitable financing from a lender, in other words a mortgage. This is where the final sale of your home takes place. The lender will send out an appraiser to appraise your home. The appraiser is independent from the lender, the agent, and the buyer or seller. The guidelines they use to appraise properties are set by the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP) and Fannie Mae. In other words, they are not concerned with what you say your home is worth, what the agent says its worth, or even what the buyer has agreed to pay for the property. The opinion of value can only be based on the past six months of home sales in your area that have closed escrow (completed sales). Problems usually arise when homeowners install extensive or unusual upgrades. If you installed a custom pool that cost $40,000, but the local marketplace supports a value of $15,000 for the pool, $15,000 is what will be going on the appraisal. The appraisers opinion of value will need to be equal to the agreed upon sale price or close to the agreed upon sale price for the lender to agree to lend the funds to purchase the home. In general the more money a buyer is willing to put down (borrowing less), the more likely the lender will lend on a property if the appraisal comes in lower than the sale price.
So in the end, you'll need to sell your home to a Buyer Agent to bring the buyer, The Buyer to agree to purchase the home, and finally an Appraiser to allow the lender to fund the mortgage to complete the sale. Then and only then will you be on your way to your next step in life.
Ron Carpenito's Prime Property Team is a full service real estate team serving the Merrimack Valley and New England committed to changing lives one home at a time. Call today to discuss your specific situation and needs.
Data provided by MLS.
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The Entire Keller Williams Andover Office
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