Carlos Lobato

There's a reason why I always insist that the home sellers leave the house when I'm showing it to a perspective buyer. More often then not the seller sticks their foot in their mouth, and low and behold, yesterday it happened................again. I was showing a beautifully-kept home that was flawless in every sense of the word. The prospective buyer was sold and was already talking about making an offer while we were still in the house. Then, as the buyer proceeded to comment on the lovely piano the seller says..................here it comes..........are you ready?........"Oh thank you! It belonged to my mother-in-law who passed away, and here's her room. We keep it just like if she were still here with us." This is not completely verbatim, but you get the idea.

Needless to say, the buyer will not be making any offer on this property; not to mention that the seller potentially gave away a bargaining chip by disclosing to the buyer that she already bought and just closed on another home. Now granted this example is on the far end of the foot-in-the-mouth meter, and most infractions are less severe. But what they all have in common is that they ultimately cost you money. So when your agent asks you to leave the house, please don't be offended. Do yourself a favor..........leave!

Appraisals are killing real estate deals. This should come of surprise to no one. As a matter of fact, the appraisal has come up short on my last four transactions. It's quite common for appraisals to come in at $25000 below contact prices, or even more. Just this week I had a property appraise at $140,000 below the contract price! Needless to say, all parties are in shell shock. Yes, the listing agent, the seller, the buyer, and myself expected that we would come up short, and would have to then re negotiate. However, this is more then 100% off from any of our wildest estimates. For now, we're in limbo. The buyer still wants it, the seller still wants to sell it, yet the buyer can only buy for the amount that their lender will lend. What to do? "Blast those appraisals!" you say ? I think our industry is barking up the wrong tree. The appraisals are merely a reflection of what properties are currently selling for, and the buyers by and large will pay the appraisal value. Unfortunately, we're just not adequately educating our home sellers. It's a bitter pill to swallow for a home owner, but a reality nonetheless. Lets start off on the right foot by having the home owner order an appraisal before bringing the property to market...

I'm presently in the process of helping a lender sell one of their properties. We just received a very competitive offer from a ready willing and able buyer. In the process of explaining the details of the offer to the bank rep, he proceeded to use three words that rip through my brain worse than fingernails on a chalkboard.................."According to Zillow!". Yes, "according to Zillow this property is worth $70,000 more then this offer". Needless to say, and as is quite ofter the case, Zillow is wrong. Now I can understand a laymen going to Zillow to get a clue about market value, but a bank rep in charge of a $500,000 asset?

It's no wonder they're in trouble...

I currently have one of my listings under contract that is scheduled to close tomorrow. This is a nearly new home. To my surprise, I just got a call from the lender saying that they need to do a re appraisal because the initial appraisal report did not indicate whether the electricity was on at the time of the appraisal. Now, I know it was, yet no matter my assurances, the lender said that the property would have to be re appraised. In other words, the lender is going to pay an appraiser to come to the property tomorrow to flick a light switch. Furthermore, they informed me that if this silly exercise is not done, that they would kill the loan for a buyer with an 800 credit score and 30% down. How silly is this???

I try to make a conscious effort to dress professionally at every available opportunity. After all, we're professionals and should dress accordingly. I don't think anyone would argue that. However, I've lost count of the number of times that one of my colleagues has asked me, "do you have a closing today?" They see me wearing a suit and immediately assume that I have a closing on that day. "So what?", you might ask.

Well, let's take a typical buyer transaction. As is usual for me, I'm involve myself in every step of the process. I meet the buyer (Bill), I show him properties, I write up offers, I go to the home inspection, I attend the appraisal, I accompany Bill to the final walk-through, and finally to the closing.

What if the only time that I dressed professionally was at Bill's closing? What would I be communicating to my customer? Simple: that the only part of our relationship that I care about is the part where I get paid!

In short, It behooves all of us to think about this the next time we think about asking on of our colleagues, "Do you have a closing today?"