Home Inspections. Don't like them at all. Received an "Inspection Report" today stating the AC is five years older than the house! Never had that one before. The house is only six years old and was built by a big time national builder. The AC works great but now the buyer wants a letter from the builder stating that this is the unit that was put in the house when it was built six years ago. Now obviously trying to get this documentation from the builder, who has probably built 10,000 houses since this one, is impossible.

In my State, Florida, the only requirement to become a "professional home inspector" is a stack of business cards and an occupational license. Scary when you consider these guys can make or break a deal.

So I was wondering does your State have an agency to regulate Home Inspectors?

Received an offer for one of my listings yesterday. At least I think it was an offer. It came in on a standard Far/Bar purchase contract. The only problem, with what I was able to read, is half of the information was either missing or incorrect. Unless of course the Buyer meant to ask for a 21 day closing and include a 30 day financing contingency. Now I admit I'm not very good at math but it looks like this Buyer has up to 9 days after closing to get final loan approval. Since the address is wrong on the contract he will probably need this extra time to locate the house he just bought.

Fortunately for this Realtor I will take the time to write up a new contract and hopefully we will be able to negotiate a deal. After all my Sellers just want to sell and the Buyer just wants to buy.

As Realtors it is very important that we are able to write legible and binding contracts for our Sellers and Buyers. There is no excuse for not being able to do this. We our actually bound by Article 9 of our NAR Code of Ethics to ensure that all contracts and addendums are properly completed, signed and dated by all parties. Take this seriously as our customers and clients are relying on us to protect their interest. I can't remember where I heard it but someone told me once "to write every contract as if I had to defend it in front of a Judge." Would your contracts pass this test?

Negotiated a deal on one of my listings yesterday. The Buyer is purchasing using 100% financing with Seller paying closing costs. My market is affordable housing with the majority of homes priced from $190s to $250s and it seems like most of the Buyers lately have been purchasing with no money down. Now don’t get me wrong I am in favor of home ownership for everyone but I fear a lot of the Buyers are going to have financial difficulties in the near future. With high insurance costs, property taxes and mortgage payments I am seeing payments of close to $2,000 per month for a starter home. That’s a pretty big nut to crack every month in my area where most families are regular working class people and don’t have any reserve funds if they should encounter a financial setback.

Also, a good number of these purchases are being made with ARMs with the Buyers basing their ability to pay on future raises at work or a part time job that they may or may not be getting. In my opinion Mortgage Brokers and Realtors are being overly aggressive in selling these folks on the advantages of home ownership without really taking the time to counsel the Buyers on the true costs involved. And since they don’t have to come up with any money at closing they are sitting ducks for Mortgage Brokers who are charging them sometimes outrageous fees for doing these types of loans.

So my challenge to Realtors who are dealing with first time Home buyers with a little or no money down is to really take the time to explain the pros and cons of purchasing a home. If the Buyers are fully informed and are wanting to move forward then help them to negotiate fees or guide them to the myriad of programs available that can help them with financial assistance. Placing a Buyer in a home he can’t afford can damage them for years. It can cause bankruptcies, divorces and even illnesses. So let’s “Protect the public” it’s what Realtors are supposed to do.

I am always reading and hearing about leads. How do you get them? And what do you do with them? Have you bought leads from this company? Well this got me thinking about what is a lead? A lead to me is someone that contacts me and tells me they want to sale or buy a house in the next 30 days and they were given my name by so and so whose house I sold last year. Leads are gold. Leads are money in the bank. They are ready to buy or sell and they are ready to work with you. Leads will turn into customers or clients and if satisfied will result in more leads by referring your services. If you could get a couple of leads a week you could easily covert them into six to eight closings per month. Leads can't be bought. Leads come from hard work and a loyal customer base that is built over years from providing honest and professional service. And from keeping in touch with past customers and clients.

Usually when we are talking about leads I think we are really talking about prospects. A prospect is someone that may be interested in selling or buying sometime in the future when Venus aligns with Mars. These are the people who spend days on the internet contacting every Realtor they can. Or call off the yard sign while riding around on a Sunday afternoon. You can buy prospects. There are many large web based "lead mills" that are wanting to sell you what they call "leads." Folks these are not leads they are prospects. To pay for these types of "leads" in my opinion is a waste of money. If these prospects were truly leads they would not be selling them to you for a few bucks.

So save your money and concentrate your efforts on keeping in touch with past customers and networking with people in your community. Always provide honest and professional service and before you know it you will have a steady stream of leads. Remember leads can't be bought they must be earned.

Did you know a fiduciary relationship is forever? When working for a Seller or Buyer as a "Single Agent" you are creating a fiduciary relationship.

Brief definition from Wikipedia: for full definition click

A fiduciary duty is the highest standard of care imposed at either equity or law. A fiduciary is expected to be extremely loyal to the person they owe the duty (the "principal"): they must not put their personal interests before the duty, and must not profit from their position as a fiduciary, unless the principal consents. The fiduciary relationship is highlighted by good faith, loyalty and trust.

Once this relationship is established it does not go away just because your listing has expired or your Buyer is no longer working with you. You are still bound by this relationship. This means that whatever your client has told you in confidence must remain confidential until your client has given you permission to remove the confidentiality. And you have the duty of full disclosure to your principal. This is where in my opinion the problem comes in with having an Agency relationship in Real Estate.

Example: Suppose you have a listing as a single Agent and the Seller, your principal, has told you that she has been having financial difficulties. She is a few months behind on her mortgage payments and needs to sell quickly to avoid foreclosure. And she has asked you not to disclose this information to anyone. Ok, no problem, so far. A few months go by and your listing agreement expires and the Seller decides to list with another Company. About a month later you are searching for homes on the MLS to show the new Buyer that you are working with. This Buyer has signed a "Buyer's Broker Agreement" agreeing that you will work for him as a single Agent. The Buyer is now your Principal. Lo and behold the best match for your Buyer is the property that you had listed that is now with another Company. You take the Buyer to see it and he falls in love with the property. You rush back to your office and start writing a purchase offer and your Buyer looks at you and says "It looks like this property has been on the market for several months. Do you know why the Seller is selling?"

Here's your dilemma. You can't mention the pre-foreclosure or you are breaking your fiduciary relationship with the Seller and you can't not tell the Buyer because you owe him full disclosure.

This is a very simple and common example. It doesn't even take into account dual Agency or the fact that an Agency relationship starts with your Broker and filters down to all the Agents under that license. So what do you do?

Following up on one of my deals today scheduled to close this coming Friday. Finally reached the Buyer's Realtor after leaving several messages only to hear how hectic her week has been with the kids getting ready for school blah, blah, blah. Anyway she suggested that I follow up with the Mortgage Broker and Title Company to make sure we are still on track for Friday as she doesn't have the time to deal with this this week. OK, correct me if I'm wrong but sometimes I wonder why I am even paying the buyers' Realtors. This happens ALL the time. Fortunately for them I prefer to cut them out of the deal as soon as possible anyway so I can deal directly with the Mortgage Broker. But what about the Realtors that don't want to deal with the other side of the transaction? Are these Buyers having the same difficulty with their Realtor as I am? I do realize that there are part time Realtors in this business that have conflicting obligations, like another job, but please for the Buyer's sake dedicate some time during the day where you are able to follow up and take care of your Real Estate business.

Buying or selling a house is a BIG deal for the consumer. As Realtors we must be in a position to see them through this experience and give them 100% of our attention in getting their deal closed. If you can't do this full time then you need to partner up with another Realtor that can handle your business when you are not able. We owe the consumer no less than this. Are your customers and clients being neglected?

Bought a new stove today. Unfortunately it won't be coming to my house but will be delivered to the house I closed on last week. The Sellers, my customers, were supposed to put a new stove in the house but decided to cut corners and put in a refurbished stove instead. Looks great. Works great. But it's not new. The Buyers nor their Realtor did a walk through prior to closing and I didn't notice it when I was in the house. The Sellers are going through a nasty divorce and had already moved and went their separate ways.

So what are you going to do? The Buyers are expecting a new stove when they arrive next week. I figure my Sellers have enough on their plate and I know that calling them on this is just going to create more tension between them. So I bought a new stove. Haven't seen it but hear it is really nice. Real shiny. Think I'll place a few business card magnets on the front and write the Buyers a little letter letting them know how I solved this problem for them. Maybe I'll get some business from it in the future. Maybe they will invite me over to dinner since my lovely wife doesn't cook. Have you gone beyond the call of duty lately?

OK, this is an actual CMA and E-mail sent to an absentee owner. What do you think? I use a pretty basic CMA format from our MLS. Nothing fancy but it seems to work. The information is current as of this afternoon so it will also give you an idea of market conditions in Poinciana Fl. I'll trust you not to contact my Seller. If you do tell him I said Hi.  By the way, if you are newer to the business, please feel free to copy the format if it will help.

Following is the Market Analysis I have prepared for your house at XXX XXXX Ct. A few comments: The analysis includes 3 bedroom homes due to the fact there are only 2 other 2 bedroom pool homes on the market in Polk County Poinciana. One priced at $173,900 and one priced at $179,000. There are eleven 2 bedroom homes on the market with or without pools from a low of $159,900 to a high of $179,900. There have been eleven 2 bedroom homes that have sold this year with or without pools from a low of $125,000 to  a high of $179,000. The suggested pricing is based on price per sq ft living area and is basd on the highest sold price per sq ft. In my opinion the suggested price is maxed out. But we can discuss that when we talk.

Your home is in pretty good condion. I would recommend, painting the front door, replacing or removing the verticle blinds in both bedrooms, replacing the light fixture in living room, replacing the socket covers that were removed and clean, clean clean. Next to pricing, cleanliness is the most important. The pool surface is bad but no action required on your part.

Overall it is a very sellable house. Nice open floor plan. Great front yard. The back yard is kind of small but nothing you can do about that. Same with the 1 car garage. It is what it is.

All of these things have been taken into consideration in my pricing. I highly recommend the "Range Pricing". This will enable me to place the home into the MLS at the lower price, but still having the ability to negotiate to the middle of the suggested range.  My whole goal is to get them in the door. If they don't see it they can't buy it. Also, I think it is imperative that we offer the selling agent a x% co-broke. Obviously, if I find the buyer I will not charge you the co-broke. To be honest, that doesn't happen much, but it may.

The previous pricing of $209,000 was a waste of your time. There are 1,400 properties for sell in Poinciana, not counting FSBOs, as of this morning. You have a lot of competition. There are 235 homes under $200,000. So needless to say pricing is extremely important. Ok, that's all for me rambling. Please review all the info and let me know when I can get started. I did a complete photo shoot and measured while I was there today. So if you are agreeable I can have you up and running within 1 hour.  Call me with any questions or suggestions.

Please visit a personal page I've set up for you that contains a link to a Comparative Market Analysis report.

http://bryanttutas.mfr.mlxchange.com/?r=111496147&c=2&id=32373632313339.366

Even the name sounds contradictory. Dual Agency. How can this be achieved? How can a Realtor, in all honesty, work for two Clients on opposing sides of a transaction? How can you place your Client’s interest first, when there are two of them, one trying to get the highest price possible and the other trying to get the lowest price possible? The concept of Dual Agency just doesn’t make sense to me, at all.

The State of Florida got smart in 1997 and made Dual Agency illegal. We are now presumed to be Transaction Brokers unless disclosed differently. I discussed this in a previous post, so won’t rehash it here.

An Agency relationship creates a fiduciary between the Agent and Principal. Take away the fiduciary and there is no Agency. In my opinion, when entering into Dual Agency relationship, this fiduciary must be modified, to the point of no longer existing, in order to assist both Clients equally. A fiduciary is NOT equal. Here lies the problem. Dual Agency, by it’s very nature, is not an Agency relationship. Below are some excellent links that delve into the problems with Dual Agency a little further.

http://www.realestatelawyers.com/Dual-agency.cfm

http://www.realestatejournal.com/columnists/housetalk/20031010-barta.html

http://realtytimes.com/rtapages/20050208_dualagency.htm

So what do we do? As Realtors we are obligated to “protect the public.” Our Code of Ethics is built upon this premise.

In my opinion, Florida has started down the right tract. Be an Agent, for one party and one party only. If you must work for both parties, then do it as a Transaction Broker. Personally, I would like to see it taken a step further and have no Agency relationship in Real Estate. Always, be a Transaction Broker. I believe this is a truer representation of what we really do. We are “facilitators.  If it walks like a duck…………..

I participate in another Real Estate forum and some of the questions that I see make me wonder if some Realtors are in way over their heads. Here are a few examples:

1. If I do a lease/option contract when do I get paid?

2. As a Sales Associate can I represent a Buyer in a business transaction? (if you have to ask the question, you shouldn’t be doing the deal)

3. The transaction didn’t close on time. Can I file an Ethics complaint against the other Realtor? (my personal favorite)

4. I’m going on my fist listing appointment. Besides the “purchase contract” what other forms do I need?

5. My Broker’s not giving me any leads. Is this illegal?

Now, don’t get me wrong, I am not faulting the Realtors. In fact I am glad they are asking the questions. There are no stupid questions only stupid answers. But this is scary! Where’s the training? What are the Broker’s doing? How can they allow Realtors without the basic knowledge to conduct business, loose on the public? And why do these Realtors have to ask these questions on a forum? Where’s the Broker?

My belief, is that, the general public when contacting a Realtor, should be able to assume, that the Realtor has the knowledge required to conduct business. And that they are able to “protect the public.” After all, that’s what Realtors are supposed to do. It’s scary out there! What say you?