A Griffith Listing

Real Estate Services by Jon Griffith

O Hear the Angel Voices

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(Note, the attached audio player may not appear in your mobile browser)

It was a blessing to know my Aunt Susan. I called her Su Su. She was one of the funniest people I have ever known. Cancer is a pest. But, even when faced with adversity, she was able to laugh about nearly anything.

It was because of her that I was introduced to the most beautiful rendition of O, Holy Night I have ever heard and I play it, and share it every year at this time.

The quality of the recording matches its artistic integrity, I’m sure you’ll agree. It truly is one of those “wait for it” songs, so I encourage you to sit back with your loved ones and be entertained.

Merry Christmas

Make sure you click here to open up the page that has the audio file on it.

Seller’s Obligations: Home Owner’s Association has Less than 50 Units

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The Arizona Association of Realtors Residential Purchase Contract is a legal document. When entering into any legally binding agreement, it is the party’s responsibility to read and understand each section of the contract, and know your obligations and how they affect the purchase or sale of a home.

If you are selling your home, and your home is within a homeowners association, you have additional contractual obligations to the buyer.  If your HOA contains less than 50 units, you have more work to do than if it had 50 or more.  You see, if there are 50 or more units, the Title company handling your escrow will ensure the HOA is notified of the contract and the HOA is required by law to provide the information below, which is a very important section of the HOA Addendum.

Line 36 of the H.O.A. Condomimium / Planned Community Addendum [download id=”56703″] clearly states that if your HOA has less than 50 units, no later than ten (10) days after Contract acceptance (a date that can be affected by various contingencies in the contract), the Seller shall provide in writing to the buyer the information described below as required by Arizona law.

So for example, if contract acceptance occurs on the 4th of a given month, the 5th would be day 1 and the end of the 10 day period would be 11:59PM on the 14th.  This creates a contingency for the buyer which gives them an “out” if they don’t like what they see.  They buyer has 5 days after you deliver the required information to them to make that decision.

As time is of the essence, it’s better to get this information to the buyer as quickly as possible once there is a signed contract. Every contingency that is met and lifted during escrow is one step closer to your success as a seller.

Information required to be provided to a Buyer by Arizona Law

  1. A copy of the bylaws and the rules of the association.
  2. A copy of the declaration of Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions (“CC&Rs”).
  3. A dated statement containing:
    1. (a)  The telephone number and address of a principal contact for the association, which may be an association manager, an association management company, an officer of the association or any other person designated by the board of directors.
    2. (b)  The amount of the common expense assessment and the unpaid common expense assessment, special assessment or other assessment, fee or charge currently due and payable from the Seller.
    3. (c)  Astatementastowhetheraportionoftheunitiscoveredbyinsurancemaintainedbytheassociation.
    4. (d)  The total amount of money held by the association as reserves.
    5. (e)  If the statement is being furnished by the association, a statement as to whether the records of the association reflect any alterations or improvements to the unit that violate the declaration. The association is not obligated to provide information regarding alterations or improvements that occurred more than six years before the proposed sale. Seller remains obligated to disclose alterations or improvements to the Premises that violate the declaration. The association may take action against the Buyer for violations apparent at the time of purchase that are not reflected in the association’s records.
    6. (f)  If the statement is being furnished by the Seller, a statement as to whether the Seller has any knowledge of any alterations or improvements to the unit that violate the declaration.
    7. (g)  A statement of case names and case numbers for pending litigation with respect to the Premises or the association, including the amount of any money claimed.
  4. A copy of the current operating budget of the association.
  5. A copy of the most recent annual financial report of the association. If the report is more than ten pages, the association may provide a summary of the report in lieu of the entire report.
  6. A copy of the most recent reserve study of the association, if any.
  7. Any other information required by law.
  8. A statement for Buyer acknowledgment and signature as required by Arizona law.

If this information is NOT provided by the required deadline, the seller will be in a sticky situation and will probably lose the deal, if not end up being sued by the buyer for specific performance.  Please consult with your real estate attorney for any legal matters that may arise.

It’s Mostly About the Asking Price

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Supply and demand is a powerful economic force that has many dynamic variables that affect consumers and suppliers.

When it comes to selling a home, ultimately, it comes down to the price. There’s a supply of homes on the market, each supplied by a single owner (for the most part) and represented by a myriad of brokerages competing to be the best at what they do.

It’s different than a company that produces the same product over and over again. Create a widget, and the number of widgets compared to the number of widgets demanded plays a huge role in determining market value of that widget. Please go and read stockpair review at gobinaryoptions.net.

Real estate is different, however. In a widget store, the location of the widget doesn’t affect the retail price of the widget. In real estate, one builder could build the same house in two different locations and the demand will be for the location before the house itself.

This is not always true, but is for the most part.

When you ask more than the market will bear, in consideration of the competing properties and their show quality, you’ll have a hard time selling.  When you price a property just right, you tend to sell it much faster than the competition.  Often it doesn’t matter what you’re buying so much as it matters where you’re buying it. Any home can be remodeled to maximize its value in its location.  Tear it down, re-build.

 

 

Price is Negotiated on the Front End

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There are many points along the residential real estate transaction that are open for negotiation.  One misconception that many buyers may have is that they can go in with a higher price than their competition to beat them, then use the inspection period to bring the sales price down by leveraging the repairs against the seller.

Here’s the thing.  While the sales price can be modified at any point by agreement (i.e. on an addendum), your offer/counter-offer time-line expires when the seller signs the offer.  All you have now are contingencies to let you back out of the purchase.  So, you, as the buyer, have very little say over the price after you’ve inspected the home.  What you do have is the right (depending upon the contract terms) to cancel the contract and walk away with your earnest deposit.

When a home needs repairs, you have one opportunity prior to the end of the inspection period to make the seller aware of what you disapprove of, both warranted, and non-warranted items (remember, some items are to be fixed per the Seller Warranty regardless.)  This notification is done using a document called the [download id=”56411″].

Often a buyer might use language such as, “Seller to credit buyer $5000.00 in lieu of repairs.”

This is a red flag for lenders.  Lenders don’t want to see anything about repairs, because they don’t want to lend on a property that may have liabilities.  Credits are typically handled on the front end, prior to reaching an agreement on the sale price.  But, if there is language added that says something to the effect of “Seller to credit Buyer $5000.00,” the BINSR is NOT the place to do it.  This must be done on an addendum, and even that can pose problems, because the credits provided by the seller can only cover closing costs.  So, if the seller is willing to provide a $5,000 credit, they might as well lower the price by $5,000.

Let’s use a buyer under contract at $200,000 with a seller who agreed to pay 3% towards closing costs as an example.  The seller is allowing $6,000 to be allocated to the buyer’s closing costs.  During the inspection period, the seller elects to credit the buyer $5000.00 instead of repairing the disapproved items that the Buyer points out.  Now we have $11,000 in credits, but closing costs won’t be that high, so we have nowhere to put that money, except back into the seller’s pocket.

While the buyer may be attempting to use the BINSR to leverage a price reduction, the BINSR is designed to be used to notify the seller of disapproved items.  Nothing more.

Until a buyer receives a response from the Seller regarding their intentions after being notified of disapproved items, they have only two options.  1.  Either continue with closing without any repairs being completed, or 2. bail out and receive the earnest funds back from bondsman denver co and start searching again.

The outcome of the inspection contingency is going to vary depending on market conditions.  If it’s a Seller’s market, there may be multiple offers on the property, in which case the buyer has less leverage throughout the entire transaction.

Don’t bank on repairs to lower the price of the home you intend to purchase.  It can be done, but it’s the Seller who holds the ball.  If the seller is desperate to sell, then they may simply lower the price, rather than go back on the market, but if they have multiple offers, then they may be willing to close at a higher price with another buyer without making concessions.

 

 

 

 

 

Real Estate Update as of March 2015

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Inventory is down, and as long as demand driven by re-bound buyers (people who sold their homes during the mortgage crisis who can now qualify) are taking advantage of low interest rates remains the same, that only means prices increase.

March showed us more closings than any other single month in the entire year 2014 and pending sales are also up.

As always, the media is behind the 8-ball on reporting and only now will be telling us that the real estate market is hot. If a home is priced right, it goes rather quickly, and this is coming from first-hand experience in the trenches with buyers who are having a hard time negotiating contracts with sellers. Sellers control the market right now.

If you want it, you need to be able to jump to action quickly, which means you need your financing in place before you even think about buying.