Colorado Real Estate For Sale | Find A Good Agent

Three important things to consider and why the right agent can help.

1. You obtain a contract to sell your home with an unqualified buyer? If you have an experienced real estate agent, this would never happen, so I guess this should be categorized as a rookie mistake. Always, always make sure your buyer is qualified. Lots of times, sellers won’t even show a home to someone who is not qualified.

The silver lining of the cyclical downturn is that buyers are now generally more qualified than in the past few years. Gone are fast money seekers bearing marginal credit with no down payment. In our market, buyers today are usually well qualified. The last dozen or so we’ve worked with have had exceptional credit, substantial down payments, and good incomes to match. You should rely on your agent to review contract terms and buyer qualifications. Your agent can detect red flags and help you determine if a buyer is unqualified or qualified through their exceptional lending partnerships.

2. Homebuyer receives negative and often wrong  information about your home? In other words, an inspection showed something that wasn’t disclosed or obvious to everyone on the face of looking at the house. Sometimes people even use the inspection as a loophole out of the contract due to buyer’s remorse.

Unless there is something substantively wrong with the property, I’ve found there are usually underlying reasons a buyer walks on inspection. Perhaps they’ve found another home they like better. Sometimes buyers simply get cold feet. After all, purchasing a home is a massive financial commitment and the inspection is a relatively easy way to terminate a contract. That’s why we advise our sellers to put inspection deadlines as early as reasonably possible and to be prepared for issues that might come up. Once we know a buyer is qualified and have negotiated the deal to our client’s satisfaction, the next major hurdle is guiding the contract through the inspection process.

3. You have a contract with a qualified buyer, but the closing may be too far out on the calendar? If you know the adage, “Hurry up before they change their mind,” you’ll understand why you shouldn’t let a deal idle for too. People change their minds it’s that simple. If you have a buyer, we can get things moving before something better comes along or they get cold feet. People back even at the risk of losing their earnest money.

Sometimes long closing dates are part of a buyer’s game plan. While not ideal, for the reasons that we mentioned, there are some things that can be done to mitigate the risk of the contract falling apart. In particular, a seasoned Realtor will get as many deadlines squared away early as possible and consider increasing the earnest money deposit to cover your mortgage payment loss if the contract falls apart. This can reduce, but obviously not eliminate, risk that the contract will fall apart during the run-up to closing.

Here are other a few other reasons contracts fall apart and how a realtor can help.

Mortgage market fluctuations: As was the case last month, there can be sudden shocks to the system causing lenders to terminate lending commitments. If rates have moved up since the buyer locked, or if there is isn’t enough time to set-up another loan, contracts can fall apart.

Appraisal Issues: In some markets, like parts of
California at the moment, some appraisals are coming in below what buyers paid a year ago. For those looking to re-finance or have little equity in their home, this can be a big problem. They will have to bring money to closing.

Ill will and bad faith in negotiations: Sometimes negotiations over terms can become very unpleasant. I won’t flinch from a tough negotiation, but if either party feels they are being taken advantage of or disrespected, it often comes up later in myriad ways. In particular, previously created ill will may appear during negotiations over inspection items. This is why it’s best to have your agent present issues as reasonably as possible if only to avoid creating a “this is the last straw” mentality in the other party.