Real Estate Professionals FAQ
Please understand that you will get the best response if you utilize email. We work as a team and often your question or request needs to be routed to the right party. We are able to work most efficiently when all parties have access to the written word. We know many Realtors still seem to want to discuss on the phone their questions and requests. We respect that, but we also must emphasize that you will get the fastest, most accurate, response when you utilize email.
COMMISSIONS
At the discretion of the corporate seller, the buyers agent commission (BAC) may be paid on the net sales price, not the gross. New enforcement of Realtor Association rules requires us to offer a minimum BAC. You will have the option of choosing to instead receive what the bank pays under their specific terms. The BAC offered on the BLC/MLS listing sheet is nothing more than an estimate of what will be paid. The cooperative commission offered may be accepted by a selling agent, or you may choose to accept what the bank offers. In general the alternative buyer agent coop is calculated on the net purchase price and will not be paid if buyer is also the selling broker. It averages around 2-3%. We do not know the exact amount until HUD's are prepared.
"DO YOU HAVE ANY OFFERS?"
Over the last year, we answering this question for every interested party has become more and more difficult. We do not provide this information as a service to our sellers. There are some simple things to note. Unless we have noted a property as ActiveB in the MLS/BLC system, you still have an opportunity to submit an offer. Just because we have an offer it does not mean the offer is good or it will be responded to any time in the near future. Our job as the listing agent is to obtain as many offers as possible for our clients. Answering this question may encourage somebody not to submit an offer. Please submit offers until the status changes in your MLS/BLC. Another tip is to check at www.WilmothGroup.com. We show properties as pending as soon as we have an accepted offer.
BUYERS AGENT AS PURCHASER
There are a few Banks/Sellers that will not pay commission if agent and buyer are one and the same or if agent is a principal in company that is purchasing the property. Call the office prior to writing an offer if you need this to be clarified. It is understood by Listing Broker that all offers to cooperate must be non-conditional. Buyers Agents should also consider when making their offers if the property is one where the Listing Agreement does not allow payment to a Broker purchaser. In such cases, the BAC will be paid by Listing Broker per BLC rules, despite the seller having instructed Listing Agency to not pay a cooperative commission. This issue should be understood and recognized as offers are made in these situations.
PROOF OF FUNDS
Your offer will not be submitted without proof of funds or a preapproval letter. Corporate sellers will not respond to an offer we submit without this proof. The pre-approval must include the amount that the buyer is qualified for, type of loan, contact information for the lender, and a current date or no more than 30 days old. Cash offers must have a proof of funds letter or a copy of a statement showing funds available in excess of the purchase price. Current bank statements or recent letters (less than 7 days old) from a bank representative are acceptable forms.
BANK ADDENDUMS
All REO properties have these addendums. They will supersede the original state association documents or any other purchase document. Please make sure your buyers understand that they are basically negotiating terms and then the Addendum will become the contract for purchase. Such Addendums are not available until a transaction has been negotiated. The bank prepares them once the terms are agreed to. Your buyer will have a very short time (24-48 hours) to review. It is not a negotiable document. Yes..that seems unfair but that is the way the game is played. The addendum will include the agreed to terms, plus language that will state the property is being sold in “as-is” condition abd some very specific deadlines. If the buyer can’t live with anything they discover in the addendums, then they should tell you to tell us to cancel the agreement. If we do not hear from you and receive the executed Addendum, with earnest money, within the requested time line..we will be required to put the property back on the market. If your buyer then decides they wish to proceed, it is very likely the bank will make them renegotiate the transaction.
VA HOMES
To make an offer on a VA foreclosure..please use the purchase contracts available at http://www.ocwencustomers.com/va_bf.cfm. Please also note these contracts do not include any inspection or financing contingencies. Please be aware that earnest money will be forfeited if a buyer decides not to close due to problems related to either. If you have a FHA or VA buyer, they need to understand that there are not special considerations offered on foreclosures and their lender needs to give them some element of assurance that these issues will not cause a problem. The best thing is to have these buyers utilize the VA Vendee financing program. Details are available at http://www.ocwencustomers.com/va_vfp.cfm.
LOCKBOXES AND KEYS
Lately, we have had a huge problem with disappearing keys, purposefully jammed lockboxes, and other tricks that allow interested parties in a property to allow themselves to come and go (as they prepare an offer?) but make it impossible for others to gain access with a lockbox. If you are trying to show one of our properties and this happens to you, you realize how frustrating this can be. Please, do the honorable thing and do not permit your clients to have the lockbox codes and figure out some other way to accomplish whatever it is they need to do without inconveniencing all the rest of us.
UTILITIES
Electricity will be turned on. All other utilities are the responsibility of the buyer if they need to have turned on for inspection purposes. Utilities will be turned on if safe to do so. After the inspection it is your responsibility to also turn all utilities, except electricity, off. It is also required that experienced contractors, approved by Wilmoth Group, be present when utilities such as water and gas are activated.
Electricity will be turned off as of the day of closing; please make arrangements to have utilities transferred to the buyer.
HOME INSPECTIONS
Any inspection requested by the buyer is intended to be only for buyer's information. Please be sure that the inspector understands this property is on a property listed and agreed to be purchased in “as-is” condition. If an inspector/appraiser is unwilling to turn on pilot lights, main water valve, etc., it is the buyer or buyer's agent responsibility to make arrangements to have them turned on and off again. The Seller will not guarantee that utilities will be functional for inspection. The Seller won’t authorize repairs for the purpose of the inspection unless agreed to in writing.
INSPECTION TIME LINES
It is probable that you will be required to complete all inspections (buyer and lender) within a limited time frame of approximately seven days. Please be prepared to have all inspectors lined up and ready to go upon acceptance of a purchase agreement.
WINTERIZED PROPERTIES
If a property has to be “de-winterized” for the purposes of an inspection, buyer will be required to sign an addendum stating “If buyer does not close on property, for any reason, buyer will be responsible for the cost of having property re-winterized by Seller approved vendor” Depending on the timing of the winterization, it is quite possible that plumbing repairs will be needed and the water may not be able to be turned on.
PROPERTIES DO GET WITHDRAWN BY THE SELLER
An unfortunate part of selling foreclosed properties is there are many alternative disposition methods available to the property owner/seller. We have had offers accepted verbally by a well meaning representative of the seller, only to have them come back to us a day later to say that another department sold the property and they were not aware of it. Also, accepted offers have been trumped by placement of properties in an auction. We do not like these situations either as we too only get paid when we are selling a property. This is just part of the business and best to understand the possibility than to be surprised when it happens.
HOA DOCUMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES
HOA information will be the responsibility of the Buyers Agent. If we have or have been provided with any contact information we will gladly pass along. Please make sure your Buyer will not have a conflict with any of the covenants of the Association as the Bank Addendum will eliminate this contingency and it will not be a grounds for cancelling the purchase contract.
"AS IS"
As Is means that nothing is warranted by the Bank/Seller and that Seller will not be making repairs to the property. If buyer is having an inspection, only major defects should be noted in the inspection response. This property has been priced assuming that repairs are needed.
PER DIEM
Every transaction has a contract date. If the property does not close by the contract date through the fault of the buyer/lender, per diem will be assessed on a daily basis. Please make your buyer and the lender aware of this. Per Diem clauses are a part of all Addendums required to be executed as part of the Purchase Agreement. Such per-diem penalties will be specifically identified in the required Bank Addendum. In general assume that it will be charged if the closing is delayed beyond the agreed contract date due to fault on the buyers, agents, lender or anyone on the buyer’s side of the transaction.
EARNEST MONEY
Most banks will require a minimum of $1000 or sometimes 10% for cash offers. All earnest money must be in the form of a cashiers check – NO EXCEPTIONS. EM may be forfeited if a transaction does not close due to buyer non-performance.
MULTIPLE OFFERS
If more than one offer is received on a property, the Bank/Seller might chose to respond in several ways. They might ask all for Highest and Best. If a highest and best is requested, final offers will be due by a pre-determined time. They might chose to counter only one offer and reject others.
TAXES AS REPRESENTED ON THE MLS/BLC SHEET
We only put on these sheets the public information we have available to us. We have no homeowner to turn to for answers. Remember if you are working with an owner/occupant purchaser they may be able to take advantage of the available exemptions that the taxes shown may not include. If the number does not look correct to you, you are more than welcome to do your own investigation and when provided with the discovery of an error, we will certainly happily update these records.
HOMEOWNER ASSOCIATION DUES
HOA’s are often owed money by the defaulting previous homeowners. These amounts are settled by the title company prior to a closing. The bank will be obligated for HOA fees for only the date of their foreclosure forward. It is up to the HOA’s to privately collect from the previous owner. Subsequently, we are limited in the information we have available to us as to what exactly are the annual dues. We do our best to represent this information based on the cooperation provided from the HOA and review of other properties that have sold recently in the community where a homeowner seller provided the Realtor this information. If the number does not look correct to you, you are more than welcome to do your own investigation and when provided with the discovery of an error, we will certainly happily update these records.
KEYS
Please advise your Buyer to have a locksmith ready to change all locks immediately after closing. We do not provide keys. If a key is in the lockbox, it is a master key coded in such a way that there are probably 500 other homes it fits into and there are probably many investors and other people who have this key. IT IS NOT SAFE TO NOT IMMEDIATELY HAVE THE LOCKS CHANGED. LISTING COMPANY AND SELLER WILL NOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR UNAUTHORIZED ENTRIES MADE AFTER CLOSING. Please stress this point to you Buyer.
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