Mark Corbett

Last week I attended a real estate class for my renewal of my Ma licensee. One of the topics the attorney covered was on MA offers and Purchase & Sales Agreement. One of the sections he discussed was on the mortgage contingency clause in the MA offer agreement.

The attorney proposed a question for the group of us, What would happen if the mortgage clause date went by without an extension and the buyer lost his job prior to closing on the property and the lender could not give the buyer a mortgage, would the buyer lose the deposit? The majority of the group thought that the buyer would get the deposit back, since it was out of the buyer’s control.

The attorney stated that the buyer would lose his deposit. He suggested that it is very important to keep track of the dates in the offer since the offer dates are of Time is of the Essence meaning that the dates are drop dead dates. If there was any concern with the buyer getting a mortgage than you would need to get an extension of the mortgage clause otherwise the mortgage clause is waived from the offer if it goes by the mortgage contingency clause date.

The "mortgage contingency clause" is a provision in the offer that protects the buyer being able to obtain a mortgage on the property, if the buyer is not able to get the financing terms that the buyer specified in the clause or is unable to get financing by the mortgage contingency clause date, the buyer can cancel the agreement and get his deposit back. If the seller and buyer agree, they can extend the mortgage contingency clause date to a future date, this is called an extension.

What's your thoughts on this?

If you have excellent credit, and will be purchasing a $200,000-$1,500,000 or more home or condo in the Providence, Rhode Island area, or surrounding RI neighborhoods or Southern Massachusetts in the next 90 days and would like to be represented by the Corbett TEAM of Certified Exclusive Buyer Agents (Trained in "Negotiation" for representing ONLY BUYERS 100% of the time!)"Call me at 401-265-5947for a phone consultation!

Here is a photo I took in Providence, Rhode Island of a house that someone famous lived in. Any idea?

Leave a comment and I will let you know.

If you have excellent credit, and will be purchasing a $200,000-$1,500,000 or more home or condoin the Providence, Rhode Island area, or surrounding RI neighborhoods or Southern Massachusetts in the next 90 days and would like to be represented by the Corbett TEAM of Certified Exclusive Buyer Agents (Trained in "Negotiation" for representing ONLY BUYERS 100% of the time!)"Call me at 401-265-5947 for a phone consultation!

I ‘ve been reading many blog post on short sales and they all seem to be from the seller’s agent point of view. Many of them recommend if buyers are going to place an offer on a short sale that they need to complete all inspections prior to submitting the Purchase & Sales Agreement for lender’s approval for the short sale. Many of the blog posts make the comment that if buyers are not willing to do this and pay a small amount for the inspections, they should not consider short sales.

From the buyer’s agent point of view there are a couple of concerns with getting the inspections out of the way in the beginning of the sale.

What happens if the short sale does not get approved?
If the short sale does not get approved, the buyers would not be reimbursed for the cost of their inspections, depending on which inspection are performed can be over $1,000 dollars. (Structural, Termite, Private Septic, Well, Radon, Lead, & Mold/ Air Quality, Chimney Inspection, Oil Tank/Heating System Inspection, just to name a few.)

What happens if the condition of the property changes?
Short sales transactions typically take a very long time to close, 60, 90 days or even longer to close is not unheard of. The condition of the property may have changed significantly since the inspections were completed in the beginning.

The listing agent argument is, if the seller allows the buyer to do inspections after the approval from the lender and if there are issues with the inspections then they would have to go back to the lender to renegotiate it. If the lender does not agree to it and if the buyer walks, the sellers won’t have enough time to get another buyer and will be foreclosed on.

What happens if there are issues with the title or appraisal issues, or the seller can’t get the other liens taken care of or the lender won’t take care of the seller’s taxes or utilities? The sellers will be in the same situation, which none of it would be the buyers fault.

It is unfortunate that the sellers are in this financial hardship, but the listing agent and sellers have to understand that the buyers are not the one that got the sellers into this situation. Sellers need to know that majority of short sales do not close and to have the buyer spend money on inspections, title work, or appraisal report does not make any sense if the lender(s) won’t approve the sale.

If I was in the seller’s position, I would ask the listing agent if they would pay for a pre-home inspection of the property that I would disclose to the buyer. Whatever your inspector discloses to the buyer, the buyer would not be able to negotiate that later. This way you would feel comfortable about the buyers inspection after the lenders approval, since they should be no surprises. I would also consider a inspection credit in the P&S, just in case something should arise when the buyer does his inspections. I would also want the listing agent to continue market the property to have a list of backup buyers just in case the first buyer does not work out.

What I would not do is tell your listing agent to encourage buyers not to submit offers if they want to wait to do inspections after they get lender’s approval. By doing that you are greatly eliminating the buyers who are in the market. An offer in hand is better than no offer in hand. The short sale lender won’t start the file in motion unless they have a signed Purchase & Sales Agreement.

If you have excellent credit, and will be purchasing a $200,000-$1,500,000 or more home or condoin the Providence, Rhode Island area, or surrounding RI neighborhoods or Southern Massachusetts in the next 90 days and would like to be represented by the Corbett TEAM of Certified Exclusive Buyer Agents (Trained in "Negotiation" for representing ONLY BUYERS 100% of the time!)"Call me at 401-265-5947 for a phone consultation!

This all started after hearing about a company called facebook/themlsapp located in Boston, Massachusetts from my tech friend, Chris Smith, Tech Savvy Agent, on his weekly Technology show. Shout out to Chris, Thanks allot!

He discussed this company that created this awesome facebook application that would allow your fans and friends the ability to search for properties on facebook without leaving your page or profile. When I heard about this new application, I couldn’t believe it! Allowing your friends and fans of your business page access to search all your local listings and they did not need to leave the facebook platform. I thought to myself this would allow you to connect with them through a medium that they want to converse on. Why try to get buyers over to your website when you have a group of friends surfing daily on facebook that would easily want this tool. I could see huge benefits of this tool, allowing friends of friends sharing listings with other facebook friends. What a benefit of being able to connect with you if they saw a listing on your page or profile.

I immediately contacted my local mls to be able to get this hook up, and the responds I received was …at the present time Rhode Island Statewide MLS does not authorize it, stating that the IDX policy is only for IDX websites which facebook is not, and we are waiting for NAR’s approval.

Mike Letendre, Chief Information Officer of RI MLS stated in an email “…RIAR/MLS executive staff requested a position on this subject directly from NAR. Their response is outlined below... "A proposal to amend the IDX policy to permit display of IDX listings was considered but not adopted by the NAR Multiple Listing Issues and Policies Committee at the last meeting. The issue will be considered by a special work group next month, and any resulting recommendation will be considered at the Midyear meeting. So the short answer for not is that IDX display on social media sites is not currently authorized under the IDX policy."Acknowledging NAR's statement, State-Wide MLS will support this position until the model rules are officially modified by NAR to permit the display of IDX listing content via social media applications. Of note, said position would not preclude you from displaying those properties listed by you on your own social media page(s)..."

I’m baffled on this one. Facebook being the destination of choice for many onliners, including myself, you would think this is a no brainer, but welcome to Bizarro World, “for those that not familiar with Superman, is a fictional planet in the DC comics universe where backward versions of Superman, Lois Lane and their children live.”

My local Rhode Island MLS at the present time is not allowing it’s members to display properties using the idx feed on their facebook pages/profiles that mls member manage and control. What is the difference if it is on the member’s websites or a different platform, as long as it is controlled an maintained by a mls member and the Facebook Application developer signs an IDX agreement that he will abide by the policies an rules.

What’s your opinion on my RI MLS members NOT being able to use idx property search on their facebook pages and profiles that they manage and control?

The funny thing is that my local mls is allowing idx data to be displayed on mobile application. From their definition would not that be considered not an “idx website” too. Where does it state in the idx policy that a mobile platform can be used? I can’t see why this can't be determined at the local level & let the members decide? If it is acceptable for the mobile application why can it be used on the facebook platform? If our members want to be able to do this, it is clearly in the local mls discretion to allow it. Other Mls systems are allowing it such as MA MLS Pin, NH, CT, SC that I’m aware of.

If your MLS is allowing it leave me a comment. Would love to hear your thoughts and inputs. If you’re a RI Realtor email them and voice your opinion that their delay in making a decison on this issue will effect your future business. Feel free to re blog or tweet this blog.

Wishing all my clients past and present and friends a safe, healthy and prosperous 2011!!!

Mark Corbett, member of Corbett Team!

The Buyer's Choice 1614 Lonsdale Ave Lincoln RI 02865

If you have excellent credit, and will be purchasing a $200,000-$1,500,000 or more home or condo in the Providence, Rhode Island area, or surrounding RI neighborhoods or Southern Massachusetts in the next 90 days and would like to be represented by the Corbett TEAM of Certified Exclusive Buyer Agents (Trained in "Negotiation" for representing ONLY BUYERS 100% of the time!)"Call me at 401-265-5947 for a phone consultation!