Case of K&N (Part 5 - Offer Approved!!!!),

Yay, offer finally approved at offer price!!! 没想到会在这个星期, 以为要等到下个星期的! 今天下午list agent的assistant寄了我这个消息. 我立刻转给K, 她非常高兴, 问我接下来要做什么.

K问很多问题, 有时我在心里想, K小姐啊, 你能不能google一下子啊, 但我把这话咽下去了. 这说明她信任我, 依靠我, 我多做一点又有什么呢? 就象昨天我带着另一个客户去和seller签最后的二份document, seller complain 她的agent not helpful, 我的客户却笑咪咪地对她说他什么都count on我, 听起来还是蛮中听的， 别人的一句赞扬俺就满足了。哈哈。

OK, 所以K&N的从1/14递上去, 到2/28最后批准, 一共一个月零两个星期, 不过这个是原来就被批准过的因买家换的case. Bank requires to close before or on 4/8, we'll just choose 4/8.

我的操作系统

我有自己的一套操作系统, 运作的还不错, 很efficient (从买方客户的经济人讲) -

1) 开始. 和我的新客户, 尽量能约一个会面交谈的机会, 如果不能见面, 先电话里谈. 大约20-30分钟, 主要是了解情况. 我有自己的questionnaire, 包括价格, location, condo vs. SFH, 大小, #of bed and bath, 对建筑年代的要求, must haves和must not haves (比如最近有一对年轻的couple 说他们hate temdom garage, haha), 对mello-roos和HOA有没有限制, 有些客户还具体到哪一家学校, 同时我也了解客户的financial情况, 比如downpayment, 有没有被pre-approve, 年收入, credit score, 有没有其它的debt, 根据我了解的情况我会适当做些建议. 尽可能多的了解你, 可以offer 更personal的服务, 而且尽可能避免last minute surprise. 我喜欢凡事提早打算. 当然, 很多东西都是在看的过程中不时调整的, 我会和你一起调整. 接下来, 如果你是first time buyer, 我会把买房的整套过程大致讲一下, 也会告诉你closing cost大致是哪些, 买房后每月得承担多少. 最后是你有没有问题我可以帮助回答的.

2) 筛选. 不象一般的代理, 只要是价位符合条件的统统给你寄过来. 我会先给你初步筛选, 如果是价位和实际相差离谱的, 或者你明明和我说你最多能承受$300的HOA, 我还把$400的listing寄给你. 你和我的时间都很宝贵, 能不浪费则不浪费, 况且, 房子看的太多了, 很会lost, 所以只focus在几个合适的上面. 有些agent经常抱怨客人看房看了无数, 还没买房. 其实, 应该反省的是自己, 为什么这么sloppy, 在看房之前都不作些必要的home work, 导致这么低的效率. 我的客人从开始到下第一个offer通常是在看了8-10个房之间, 并不是他们不挑, 而是我会和他们沟通把那些不必要的去掉. 一个做无用功的agent一定不是你想要的.

3) 看房. 在看房之前我一定会争取先和list agent打电话联系了解情况, 除了房子的情况, 还包括其它的, 比如owner为什么卖房, offer的情况, 比如seller有没有其它的offer, offer怎样等等。90%agent不会告诉你确切价格, 但是我总是会try to get a hint, 不过只是大致而已, list agent只代表卖房, 不owe买方due diligence, 况且offer这东西本来就是dynamic的,  现在没offer, 再过半天可能就是multiple offers. 很多agent不一定总接电话, 所以我通常都写一个list, 在我能抓住他们的时候把该问的一次问清, 省得回头再问. 我会把这些情况convey给我的客户, 所以他们在看房之前就有些基本情况. 如果是在open house时带我的客户去看房，我会让我的客户看房子，我抓紧时间和 agent了解基本情况比如目前offer情况，seller的情况，什么原因卖房等等。面谈优于电话谈。那时她们都比较放松，而且我能立刻看到她们的面部表情。

4) 看房之后. 如果要make offer, 我和客户首先要商定价格, 不能定下来的, 我会很快给他们run comparable data.

5) 试探. (主要是为了应对目前这样tight inventory的市场). 写offer之前, 我会再次打电话给list agent, 告诉他我的客户喜欢他的listing, 他们要make某某price的offer, "do you think I should write the offer?" 如果根本不可能, 他会告诉我没必要写了, 因为其它的offer都高过这个价位, 如果agent的声音听上去很鼓舞, 我就知道还有戏. 但并不总凑效, 因为offer是流动的, 经常是前两个小时和后两个小时的情况就大相径庭. 所以我的另一个策略是问agent什么时候他凑齐所有的offer和seller review, 然后我等到offer估计都差不多七七八八的时候再打电话, 那个时候如果agent听上去还很encouraging, 那么offer被接受的可能性又比早先增加很多. 我通常避免我的客户成为前面的1-2个offer者, 除非是offer出奇的好, 不然多数是给人垫底. 而且通常我只递minimum 的文件 (除非是MLS特别写明一定要哪些), 如果有戏, agent会要, 如果没戏, 节省了时间. 另外, 如果是个好的offer, agent收到后通常很快会acknowledge, 如果没有在几个个小时之内收到acknowledge的, 基本没戏, 当然什么都不排除有exception，比如周末和晚上-- agent也有自己的life.

有心，细致， 条理，always try to find multiple ways to solve a problem 已经build到我的blood里去了，它们已经成了我的个性 :-).

我谈short sale

我自己的几个投资房中, 有两个是通过short sale买的. 都是two mortgages with the same lender. 一个lender是JPMorgan Chase,  另外一个是Bank of America的. JPMorgan Chase的很快, 从报上去到最后批下来一个月加一星期, BofA的3个月零一星期. 我也take了不少给realtor提供的webnar training, 想和大家分享一下.

What is a short sale (quoted)?

A short sale occurs when the net proceeds from the sale of a home are not enough to cover the sellers’ mortgage obligations and closing costs, such as property taxes, transfer taxes, and the real estate practitioner’s commission. The seller is unwilling or unable to cover the difference.
Some — although by no means all — short sellers may also be in default on their mortgage loans and be headed for foreclosure. However, home owners who bought at the top of the market or who took out large amounts of equity with a refinance and who now need to sell because of divorce or job transfer may also find themselves upside down, owing more than the home is currently worth when closing costs are factored in.

如今市场上的regular sale的inventory少而又少, 银行屋从去年开始就大大缩水, 今年看到的更少,而另一方面, federal has extended the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act for one year, 同时, 加州正在等候SB30 senate bill 的通过, 得到mortgage debt relief的seller就不用付欠银行差额那部分的州税和联邦税, 大大facilitate和鼓励了short sale. Projection是2013年仍然是short sale贯穿的一年. 如果你在looking for a good deal, 并不急着搬家, 可以考虑short sale, short sale的价位通常还是会低5%-7%左右, 1-3年前曾经可以低到10%以上.

买short sale, 要考虑一下几点 -

1) short sale是"as is" sale, 意味着被银行批准后如果你在home inspection中发现问题, 银行不负责修, 当然你如果是fundation和structural的问题, 你还是可以在17天的contingency的条例下walk out.

2) 个别银行要buyer出short sale中negotiator的钱($500-$1000不等, 一旦short sale的approval package被递上取, 银行会指定一个negotiator来handle case), 不过这个在MLS就会写明, 如果没有特意指出, 就没有这个费用.

3) 很多银行不付和HOA相关的费用, 包括HOA document preparation fee和HOA transfer fee which 在regular sale中是seller付的(大约在$300-$500之间), 也包括seller目前欠HOA的钱, 所以我总会从对方的经济那里了解seller目前有没有欠HOA的钱和接下来一直到approved会不会欠. 不过这个也是各家银行有所不同, 比如我的JPMorgan Chase的short sale什么都付了, 但BofA却不付和HOA相关的费用. 也有一些银行不负责termite inspection和termite clearance.

4) 买short sale, 如果只有一个lender, 或者two mortgages with the same lender, 那会快和smooth得多, 通常1-3个月, 但如果是两个不同的lender, 就take longer, 也是depend on lender, 2-5个月不等. 今年应该有更多的lender streamline 他们的process. 联邦一直在制订条例和措施要各家银行方便short sale.

5) Qualify agent. 好的有经验的agent在listing之前都做比较数据, 他有把握这个标价是可以批过的,他们甚至已经把termite inspection都做好了, 因为批过以后如果发现有termite银行又不负责clear的话, boom!这$3000clearance谁来出? 重新negotiate和重批对short sale是最头疼的, 很多东西又要重新来. 有些没有经验或不负责任的agent故意把价标的很低, 你只要做一下homework, 就知道是不可能被批过的, 银行也不至于傻到那种地步, 要么你根本拿不到这个价, 要么你就等着几个月之后这个listing 又从pending到 relist with different price吧.

6) short sale不同于regular sale, seller不和你negotiate (不会counter offer你),  你只能offer highest and best.

7) owner 会拿走冰箱和洗衣干衣机, 这个不是big deal, 知道一下就好, 不要被stainless appliances迷惑.

8) last but not the least, short sale中对方agent最担心的是buyer中途跑开, 这样一来所有的文件又要重新submit, 所有的process也重新一遍. 时间上耽搁不说, lender有trustee sale date, 如果在一定的时间内sale不成, 银行就要做foreclosure sale. 所以我的客户如果要定一个property, 我有特殊的strategy锁定, 和其他offer compete胜出. 但这个属于商业机密, 恕不分享. :-)

About Diminished Value (DV) Claim - 和房地产无关

不知道你没有听说过 DV (Diminished Value) Claim , 如果没有, 可以google了解一下, 说不定以后对己对人有用。 安全驾驶。以下是我去年登在一个叫Ripoff Report网站的complaint.

Auto Loss Appraisal Group of America AutoLoss.com - Dishonest company. Feel cheated -

My 2011 GS350 that was just purchased about 6 months ago was bumped by someone at the rear door. Since I worked for auto collision industry and knew that this qualifies for DV, I started my DV claim immediately. I googled for DV appraisers, AutoLoss.com was on the top of the list. I'm normally a very detailed oriented and cautious person, I do research before taking actions, but all "glamorous" feed backs on their website bewildered me -

So I submitted a request for free quote via their website, and Monica Fisher, wife of Terry Fisher, the owner, replied shortly with subject "Great DV Claim" in her email and called me instantly (In fact, this is the only time that she called, just to collect $275). After that she sent me a 10-page file which seems to be a boilerplate appraisal with lots of meaningless and informationless sentences at a lost value of $6770. Wawanesa, the offender side's insurance company, which I would say a pretty decent company, hired their own independent appraiser, appraised the loss for $2100 and sent me a check for the amount of their appraisal.

I sent their appraisal to Monica, and asked her to take a look as of why there was such a gap on the loss value between the two appraisals. She didn't reply, I sent email again after a couple of day, she replied "They are not comparing apple to apple. Thanks,". I doubt she even looked into the insurance company's appraisal. I called the local appraiser who did Wawanesa's appraisal and discussed, he said that's the fair value he'd given. I then called insurance company, and was told they would give me a chance to have my appraiser talk to their appraiser and confer with each other on the appraisals, and if it comes out of any difference, they would go from there.

The insurance representative also said DV appraisers should know how to do this as they were experts on this. After I requested a few times, after more than 2 weeks, Monica finally replied once more with just one line, "They need to put that the negotiations are binding in writing. Thanks.". At that time, I sensed the fishiness of this company. Apparently she's just trying to intentionally avoid/delay anything they need to do on their side until you gave up. I immediately searched online on the reviews of autoloss.com and found there were quite a few complaints filed against them. What had happened to those owners are so similar to what happened to me. However I still wanted to try a final test, so I sent an email to Monica and asked if they were going to charge me for this negotiation,

She replied "Yes, if you want us to negotiate the appraisal, the fee is an extra $100 just because it is a lot more work for us. Thanks," Her answer was not surprising to me, so I replied "Oh Monica, is that really? You didn’t do ANY job other than providing me an appraisal written from a template which probably won’t take more than 15 minutes. I read all bad claims from online and only regret that I had not read them earlier. Rest be assured, I will write another complaint on top of those, Thanks,"

I did another search on BBB (Better Service Bureau), and found out that due to too many complaints, autoloss.com's credential was revoked just over a year ago by BBB.

Lessons learned -
1) When you google for a service, don't always takes the first 1 or 2. Whether they are on the top is NOT based on rating, but because they have had paid more advertisement fee than the rest.

2) Don't trust the customer feedback on a company's own web site. They have the control of their own website, and you won't expect to see any negative ones there.

3) It's NOT so important to see how many good reviews are there for a specific company (companies can write good reviews for themselves can't they?), what's important is to search what bad reviews are about on the service company. When people take time to write bad review, their experience must be really frustrating and unpleasant. So always start with bad reviews.

4) If you want to file a DV claim, either get a quote for about 40 bucks online, for if the insurance company is decent, they will pay you the amount close to the real loss, or if the insurance company is not that nice, spending more doesn't provide extra value than $40. Other option is you might want to walk into a local appraiser's office and make sure that they will negotiate with the insurance company if an agreement needs to be reached.

讲讲银行估价

当你的offer被接受, 只要你是贷款买房, 那么只要不另外写明, by default, 你的offer是contingent on lender appraisal的. 最近经常出现lender appraisal低于你的出价, 基于以下几个原因:

1) lender appraisal是based on comparable data, 而这个comparable data又通常来自于过去3-6月之间的数据, 在目前这样一个卖方市场, 3-6的数据就会有不少差别, 导致你的估价低于你的出价.

2) 你的出价本来就高出市场价. 因为有multiple offer, 你又很喜欢这个房子, 怕不出高价拿不到,  特别是你已经失去好几次机会了, 你也累了, 就豁出去算了.

3) 银行估价虽然请的是第三方估价专业人士, 但这些第三方估价有些都是银行的affiliated business, 估价相对保守已减少lender风险, 这样一来就导致appraisal低于出价的case, 从去年以来屡见不鲜.

4) 另外, 在银行的估价里面, 一个房子的upgrade大概就只值一半的价, 而你买房的时候, seller是把他的upgrade都算进去的.

很多agent不一定跟你讲这些, 所以导致估价出来后进退两难. 如果差别在1-3%你可能就接受了, 但如果在差额>5%, 你还是会觉得不爽.

那么直接的consequence是什么呢? 假设房子是100万, 本来你首付20万, 贷款80万, 现在估价出来95万, 那么银行只能贷款95万的80%=76万, 你就要把首付增加到24万. Between appraisal price and offer price, bank takes whichever is lower.

那么你可以做些什么呢? 当然首先尽可能避免, 在offer 时就对此有所考虑, 但有些时候没法避免, 那么有三种choice -

1) 叫你的agent把appraisal报告寄给对方agent来open renegotiation的channel. 一般seller也怕你drop offer, 重新list也很麻烦, 一般会考虑给你一些price reduction, 但估计不会全给. 这些你都得靠你的agent帮你talk and work.
2) 退出. 你的损失就是通常$395的估价费. 因为你的offer is contingent on appraisal, 你可以得到你的earnest money back. 如果有这种可能, 那就先不要做home inspection等等花钱的事, 等到银行估价出来再说.
3) If you don't care, take it. 如果是这样的话, 早该在写offer时, 就写明"offer NOT contingency on appraisal", 有了这一句, agent再在递offer的时候着重提一下, 你bid的时候就多了一个优势了. 当然, 这一句不能随便写, 你一定是很想要这个房子而且financially有准备pay for the difference.
4）自己提供comparable data, 要求银行重新估价。这个你的agent和对方的agent都可以做。这种情况出现在你要这个房子，对方不降价，你首付很紧，基本是offer price的20%。

Case of K&N (Part 4 - Offer Accepted!!!)

这样又看了2-3个listing. 然后有一个星期天(1/13)当我在午后12:30看email时看到K已给我发了3-4个邮件了, 从早上7点开始, 要去看一个最新出来的已被approved short sale, approved@465K. 我赶紧打电话过去, 问她不是看的一直是40万左右的吗? 她说他们从画面看很喜欢, 所以他们打算把股票帐上的钱liquidate出来. 我立刻给listing agent 打电话, 询问相关情况, property 有什么lien啊, property tax 有没有default, HOA是current吗, 会stay current吗等等. 接着就是和owner约好下午2点看. 我们去看的时候就见人进人出, 有agent的没agent的都有, 我们在那边呆了30分钟不到, 就进出了5, 6拨人. owner跟我说今天她已头晕脑涨了, 太多人showed up. 这个房子她04年底是62.5万买的. 1972年的single房子, 上下两层, 4房加一bonus房, 3浴, 楼上4房2浴, 楼下1房带1浴, 2160尺, decent lot size, corner lot, 住进去之前把地毯换一下就基本可以了. K&N来自boston, 房屋年代对他们不是问题, 再加上有老爸得天独厚的资源, 他们可以用最少的钱把这个屋子搞得很好. 我知道他们一定会make offer, 所以特意和owner connect了一下, 把我和N的名片留给owner, 把我的client的名字告诉了她. 要知道, for short sale, owner拿不到sales proceed, 但是是他们选择哪个offer递到银行去批, 所以他们接受是第一步.

出来后和K&N商定downpayment的数额, 回到家快四点, 写offer, 来回签字, 等我把offer和downpayment proof of fund寄出去的时候是6:30pm了. 下面是我给agent写的email.

Dear R...,
Thank you so much for returning my phone call this afternoon and answering my questions, I know that not every agent works and answers phone calls on Sundays.

Attached are my client offer documents, and below are the things that I'd like to emphasize and hope that will put my client's offer in a strong position -

1) My clients are not in contract with any existing short sales and are not writing offer on multiple listings, so they are not speculating among listings and they are very firm on this property.
2) Strong offer with 25% downpayment.
3) This is gonna be their primary residence.

我写的这三点, 对于一个buyer walk out 的listing条条中听, listing agent有了前车之鉴, 在第二次会慎重很多.
第一条: 有些buyer同时on contract with多个short sale, 哪一个先批下来, 再从另外的drop出来, 我写明我的客户没有这样做, 而且这是我们目前唯一的offer.
第二条: 这种比较老的房子, 中国人不会有太多人买, 那么在剩下的一些国家中, 能出25% downpayment不会很多, 能出25%的就去买更大房子了.  downpayment出得多, seller 比较放心, 意味着fall out from escrow的机会大大减少.
第三条: 我们不是投资者, 是自住, 这样一来对银行审批有利, 也比投资者更加稳定.

寄出后5分钟内收到agent的ackowlegement and thank you, 凭我的经验, 这是个good sign, 隔了一个小时, 又收到agent的email, 要另外的材料, 我就知道有戏了, 那个时候已是将近8点, 我一边立刻和K&N电话联系, 及时给他们更新, 一边准备另外的3-4份材料, 一边给agent update说我会今晚把这些都备齐给他. 8:30我受到agent的又一个邮件:

right now you are the best (and only offer we've gotten). i'm in Atlanta and it's 11:30pm here.  i'm ready to go to sleep! my client and i are trying to get this finalized, so it looks like you're getting the deal! so please get those items to us as soon as possible. i'd love to have it all at the bank when the walk in tomorrow morning.

Gettng the deal并不意味got the deal, 在现在heated real estate market, 很多都是dynamic变化之中的, 特别是我知道因为是星期天, 大多数agent都不会offer我的速度, 但Monday我肯定会有multiple offers, 所以不能放松, 要在睡前把所有寄出.

9点钟陌生的电话进来, 是listing agent, 我很意外, 因为已是他的时间12点, 他的email说他打算睡觉了, 我调侃他what's up, 他笑着说他被我的勤奋打动, 我们的purchase contract 已被executed. 他已在15分钟前把带seller签字的purchase contract 和counter addendum 寄过来了, counter 不是counter on price, 只是specify 要用的escrow和 title company.

Offer Accepted!!! 我立刻打电话给K, 她听了又惊又喜, 她没想到会这么快!

我为自己感到骄傲, 从2-9PM的整整7个小时中, 我为我的client打了漂亮的一战, 从agent的角度讲, 我做了我所有能做的!

第二天早上, agent给我发了个邮寄说早上进来一个比asking price更高的cash offer, "But time is essence, yours accepted, theirs is the backup", he said.

后记: 由于换了新的buyer, 虽然银行之前已approve了这个价格, 但是大部分的process又得重现走过. 现在正好过了一个月两个星期, 中间银行要了K&N的social security number和出生日期, 又有一次要了最新的proof of fund(存款证明)和最近一次的pre-approval letter, 我们都立刻提供. 刚刚上个星期五得到银行update说package被submit for final approval了, 再等5-7天左右应该会听到消息. 那一天也正好是K早上给我发email告诉我他们第一次offer的那个房子提价的事, 所以我们现在唯一希望的是银行不要因为现在的市场行情好, 把价格提上去. 不过和那一个不同的是, 那个从来都没有被approve过, 不停的进进出出, 不停地改价, 到最后short sale不掉, 就只能foreclose了.

等候只中, 我每个星期就会和listing agent check status, 也每个星期都update K和N,  哪怕是没有update的update, 至少他们知道我一直在keep my fingers crossed.

希望能to be continued with Case of K&N (Part 5 - Offer Approved!!!!), waiting patiently ...