Tigard Oregon Real Estate >> Wayne B. Pruner, GRI

The Active Rain "Big Dogs" are Wrong

Submitting only one offer in a short sale can get you in trouble. (The small fish in the big pond speaks up). This runs contrary to the advice given by almost all the short sale experts on Active Rain.

A couple days ago I overheard an agent tells their client that they only had to submit one offer to their lender in a short sale situation. Whoa! I have learned, the hard way, that when that little voice in my head says "Now wait a minute!" I better pay attention. So when I have a quandary that needs to be solved, I go to the Active Rain search bar and type in my problem. I usually get an answer I can embrace.

There were several posts on the subject and I decided to go with Debe Maxwell's featured post, Presenting Multiple Offers to the Lender for Short Sale Approval. The vast majority advise to only submit one, for various reasons:

•· The agent works for the Seller, not the Lender

•· Numerous offers only clog the system and slow things down

•· Offers are not contracts

•· Buyers insist that you send only one offer (theirs) to the bank

•· Banks are not equipped to sell real estate

•· Offers can be placed in a back-up position

•· And other reasons were put forward

It appears that according to all the prevailing advice, I was overly concerned. Still, the little voice did not go away.

I could ask my Principle Broker for advice. She is tough and smart and I don't like to use her time unless I have an immediate need. I recalled that the Oregon Association of Realtors had a new Risk Management Toolkit and maybe I could find an answer there.

The Risk Management Toolkit, which I assume was authored by the Association's legal counsel, specifically addressed this question. I will summarize what I found.

•1. There is a two agreement nature with short sales. One between the Buyer and Seller and one between the Seller and Lender. The Seller is negotiating with the Lender for modification of the mortgage or note. As with all real estate dealings, material facts need to be disclosed. It would follow that it is in the Sellers' and Lenders' best interest to get the highest price and that the Seller should accept and forward for consideration better offers if they are made. A better offer can be considered a material fact and failure to disclose this offer could be considered Lender fraud.

•2. Offers with escalation clauses should be returned to the Buyer for their final and best offer.

•3. Communicating with the Lender as to how the Seller is going to handle multiple offers is the key to protecting the Agent and the Seller. A cover letter sent in with the first accepted offer should indicate how you will handle subsequent offers. You can state that you will not continue marketing the property and not accept any more offers, you will accept offers only in a back-up position, you will forward all offers, you will forward all better offers, or you will forward offers only up until a certain date. This gives the Lender notice on how the Seller wants to handle the situation and fulfills the requirement for honesty, good faith and fair dealings. If the Lender is silent on this issue, proceed as you indicated. If the Lender objects to the Sellers' policy, then the Seller and Lender are free to negotiate on how to proceed.

Ah! I finally can implement a policy I am comfortable with on handling multiple offers on short sales.

And the voices in my head are gone!

Wayne B. Pruner is a Realtor® at Oregon First, who works in the Portland and Tigard, Oregon area. He is ready to help you with all your real estate needs and he is also a licensed contractor. Wayne knows houses. His phone number is 503-891-0795. Here are links to his real estate website and his real estate blog.

Now You Have Thousands of Reasons to Buy a House

The Federal Housing Tax Credit has been extended and expanded. I'll explain it here. If you have further questions, give me a call.

$8000.00 first-time home buyer tax credit

•· First-time home buyers qualify for $8000.00 if they have not owned a principle residence during the 3 years prior to the purchase.

•· The tax credit does not have to be repaid if you live in the house for 3 years.

•· The tax credit equals 10% of the home purchase up to $8000.00.

•· The purchase price of the home cannot exceed $800,000.00.

•· The sale has to be completed by April 30, 2010. A binding sales agreement that is signed by April 30, 2010 and the purchase completed by June 30, 2010 will qualify.

•· To receive the full credit, the income limit for single taxpayers is $125,000 and $225.000 for married couples.

$6500.00 move-up or repeat buyer tax credit

•· To claim the tax credit, you must have owned and lived in the home for 5 consecutive years out of the previous 8 years.

•· The tax credit does not have to be repaid if you live in the house for 3 years.

•· The tax credit equals 10% of the home purchase up to $6500.00.

•· The purchase price of the home cannot exceed $800,000.00.

•· The sale has to be completed by April 30, 2010. A binding sales agreement that is signed by April 30, 2010 and the purchase completed by June 30, 2010 will qualify.

•· To receive the full credit, the income limit for single taxpayers is $125,000 and $225.000 for married couples.

The tax credit will reduce your federal income taxes for the year. If you do not owe that much in taxes, Uncle Sam will send you a check for the difference.

Wayne B. Pruner is a Realtor® at Oregon First, who works in the Portland and Tigard, Oregon area. He is ready to help you with all your real estate needs and he is also a licensed contractor. Wayne knows houses. His phone number is 503-891-0795. Here are links to his real estate website and his real estate blog.

Your Phone System Can Cost Your Company Money

I've had it. My auto insurance company, MetLife, has the phone system from hell. It's one of those voice prompt systems where they ask you questions, supposedly "to serve you better", and you respond with spoken words. There are several prompts, some redundant, and the process takes about three minutes to get to a real person. We have five family vehicles that we insure them for about the last five years and I have always tolerated this system. But no more, I'm done with them.

My son bought a Jeep and I was trying to add it to the policy on Friday. This would have been vehicle number six. Two times I went through the whole process only to have my call inexplicably terminated when I got tantalizing close to a real person. On the final attempt I was yelling at the phone, because we all know that these voice systems work better the louder we speak. I then saw that my poor dog was freaking out! She thought she had done something wrong. I immediately consoled her and gave her a treat.

I called my local agent and he answered the phone. He quoted me a price that was actually lower than what I had been paying. This I would have never discovered if MetLife had a better phone system. Their letterhead has the motto "Outstanding People and Service". I don't think so.

Real estate agents have long know the benefits of answering their phones. A missed call can mean a significant portion of our monthly income. Please, Mr. & Ms. Realtor, don't say you provide outstanding service unless you answer your phone.

Update 11/10/2009:I did get through to a MetLife rep today, after 8 voice prompts by me and 4 commercials by them, and canceled my policy. The rep was polite and efficient. He said that on Friday the phone system was dropping calls. I have never had any problem problem with the employees. Getting to an employee was the problem.

Wayne B. Pruner is a Realtor® at Oregon First, who works in the Portland and Tigard, Oregon area. He is ready to help you with all your real estate needs and he is also a licensed contractor. Wayne knows houses. His phone number is 503-891-0795. Here are links to his real estate website and his real estate blog.

Fixing the Gates of Hell

I have many gates in my life. Since I own rental property and my children are boys, I have to do many gate repairs. I have learned over the years how to make a gate as sturdy as possible. One problem that stumped me for awhile was the lack of a sturdy gate latch. Almost all the ones being sold were of the same design; flimsy metal and short screws. The screws that attach the metal piece to the gate work loose over time and strip out the holes and never stay tight.

My solution to that problem was to weld the piece that goes on the gate to a piece of angle iron. I then can use 3" screws to secure it in place. This distributes the holding force over a wider area. I have never had to "readjust" a gate since using this method.

Wayne B. Pruner is a Realtor® at Oregon First, who works in the Portland and Tigard, Oregon area. He is ready to help you with all your real estate needs and he is also a licensed contractor. Wayne knows houses. His phone number is 503-891-0795. Here are links to his real estate website and his real estate blog.

No Personal Guarantee Needed

In many cases, no personal guarantee is needed when signing a commercial lease in the present economic climate. It's just a matter of firm and sound negotiating techniques. Commercial real estate sales and leasing activity in most areas is just as bad, or worse, as the residential real estate market.

Most commercial Landlords are experiencing high vacancy rates and when they have a prospective Lessee they are willing to make concessions, including waiving the personal guarantee. Lessee's with the financial ability and courage to move forward in the current economic climate are hard to find. Landlords are willing to compromise to get any rent out of vacant properties.

Recently I talk with 2 small business owners, (who were not clients of mine), that had rented office space. Neither one had to sign a personal guarantee. They both told the Landlord that if a personal guarantee was needed, they would go elsewhere. Both Landlords readily tore up them up.

This is a Lessee's market. Push hard for concessions, including no personal guarantee.

Wayne B. Pruner is a Realtor® at Oregon First, who works in the Portland and Tigard, Oregon area. He is ready to help you with all your real estate needs and he is also a licensed contractor. His phone number is 503-891-0795. Here are links to his real estate website and his real estate blog.