Managing Your Home Listing After the Offer

In this market, I suspect that both the listing agent and the seller take a big sigh of relief once they get an accepted offer on their home.  Who wouldn’t!    The real estate market has been very unstable lately following the government tax incentives.  Price points that previously were sweet spots to sell homes at are getting no showings.  Homes in excellent condition are getting passed over.  There seems to be very little motivation in the buyers right now (even you can even find a home buyer).

With the lending regulations changing and tightening almost daily, a strong borrower today could be one small financial slip from not qualifying for your home tomorrow.  I have lost 4 deals this year alone where a pre-qualified borrower that was also well qualified had some skeleton come out of the closet in their financial world and the underwriters killed the deal, both times just days before the closing.  You can imagine how crushed my sellers were!

So once you get an accepted offer on your home, you can’t stop working.  As the seller, have your real estate agent closely track the progress of how the buyer’s mortgage process is going.  Have an open channel to his or her mortgage broker.  I have seen several times where the mortgage guy simply drops the ball and closings take an extra 1-2 weeks.  If the listing agent was working closer with the buyers mortgage person, this may have been avoided.

Insure the appraisal is getting done in a timely fashion and if you are the home owner, consider meeting the appraiser there with some examples of good comps in the area.  While you are not influencing them, you are providing information to put your best foot forward.  If you have done work on your home recently, make sure to print up a list of those improvements and give that to the appraiser to show why your home should be appraised at the top of the range.

If you are the listing agent, I would argue that you are earning your commission if and when you get the deal closed.  You may have the nicest pictures on the Minnesota MLS, but if you can’t get the deal done, then who cares!  Watch for the milestones after the acceptance and pound your fist on the desk when they are not getting met.  You may need to carry this deal for the incompetent or absent buyer’s agent and mortgage broker.

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