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Request An Appraisal Waiver When Purchasing A Home
Request an appraisal waiver when purchasing a home, can help you win in this competitive market. I was showing my sister homes and we had lost on a previous offer to cash. We found another property and they had to write an offer well over the list price. They called their lender to ask if the appraisal could be waived. We were not in contract yet. My sister was putting 20% down and having to make up the price difference between offer and list price. They called their lender and asked to run the automated loan approval with an appraisal waiver.
The lender ran it through both Freddie and Fannie. Freddie said yes no appraisal needed, 12 offers and we won! We are all so happy for Cat and Greg. Having an appraisal waiver can help to compete against cash offers.
The loan was approved today and inspections completed yesterday, so far all going so well. Thinking out of the box in this climate is what helps an offer to win. If you want to potentially win in the multiple offer market, request an appraisal waiver when purchasing a home. Call Weintraub & Wallace Realtors. We can be reached at RE/MAX GOLD, Sacramento, and Elk Grove offices, 916-233-6759
— JaCi Wallace
Are You Struggling to Buy a Home in Sacramento?
Team Weintraub is kicking butt and taking names this month. We always do well in Sacramento real estate, but it’s refreshing and even more exciting to excel in a market that is tougher than nails at the moment. It’s super hard to buy a home in Sacramento during a seller’s market. Especially when we have so many buyers vying for the same listings. But the Elizabeth Weintraub Team seems to possess the knack, the expertise and, honestly, just the good fortune, I suspect, to be winning multiple-offer situations.
Part of this could be because we know what is important to sellers and we give it to them via the offers we write for our buyers. We know how to satisfy what sellers want. The reason we know this little fact is because I personally list and sell a ton of homes in the Sacramento area, and I freely share seller expectations with my Team Weintraub members. When you know what sellers want, you know how to write a purchase offer that will give the buyer an edge over all of the other buyers. Plus, everybody knows we perform on our word. We are accountable for our actions.
It also helps to know what a strong listing agent expects, and it starts with a clean offer. No missing pieces, I’s dotted, initials in place, earnest money deposit, proof of funds, and a preapproval letter — not from some fly-by-night place. I swear, the other day I hear from a mortgage broker that his buyer who is about to close escrow has had a short sale a short time ago and now can’t qualify for a conventional loan. Well, I’ve got news for ya buddy, the buyer never could qualify for a conventional loan under those circumstances and that question should have been asked in the interview / application process and, if it was, you should have known Freddie Mac would require seasoning on those gift funds. Ack.
The offer should also be submitted to the listing agent within the time frame for acceptance. Some agents openly invite multiple offers by specifying a time for offer presentation in MLS, but that’s not a practice this Sacramento Realtor endorses because it turns off some agents and buyers. Not everybody is competitive nor enjoys competition like some of us, and I’m not naming any particular name here like myself; but the point is I don’t want to discourage any buyers from writing an offer on my listings. Besides, nothing looks goofier than touting all offers will be presented on Sunday and here it is two weeks later and the home is still for sale.
Every first-time home buyer has a chance to buy a home in Sacramento, even in a multiple-offer situation. The mindset is not to think about all of the other offers and focus solely on what you are able to do. If you want to buy a home and to align yourself with an experienced real estate team like the Elizabeth Weintraub Team, then give us a jingle at 916.233.6759.
Some Sacramento Home Buyers Should Not Buy a Home
A good reason not to buy a home in Sacramento is a buyer might not be able to afford it. Looking at the situation purely from a financial point of view, it should not be that difficult for some Sacramento home buyers to understand why a seller would refuse to make a home “affordable” for them by discounting the sales price below market value. Especially an investor who looks at his investment the same way one might consider shares of stock: it’s impersonal, and the only thing that matters is whether the price has gone up or down.
Non-affordability is not an argument nor a negotiation tactic. If you’re standing by the entrance to a freeway with a sign that says Will Work for Food, it’s possible a passerby might offer you a job or a good-hearted driver might flip you a twenty, but asking for charity when you’re buying a home is not quite the same thing. Yet, that doesn’t stop buyers from requesting it. Further, a refusal does not mean the seller is a meanie and big ol’ grouch, either.
An agent asked my seller yesterday to “have mercy” for his buyers, because they are young, with a small family, struggling and pregnant. These stories have a time and a place, we encounter them every day, but do they pertain to housing, to Sacramento real estate? Are sellers heartless, cruel and without compassion if they don’t reduce a sales price so cash-strapped buyers can purchase a home that is outside the boundaries of their financial reach?
I wonder if buyer’s agents should push a product that people can’t afford to buy? Not every buyer needs to own a home. Not every buyer should own a home. Maybe, just maybe, the buyers should not buy a home. There is no shame in renting a home, and millions of people are tenants. If people did not want to rent a home, there would be little reason for investors to buy single-family homes or condos as a long-term hold investment.
Yes, I realize just about every Sacramento real estate agent you run into will say you should buy a home. But maybe you should not.
A Cash Offer to Buy a Home is Not Always Cash
A South Pacific reef lobster-related cut still smiles on my thumb. That and a few no-see-um bites is all that remains from my 3-week vacation in French Polynesia. At least that’s all I spot as I do a full body check, heading out the door this morning to my Midtown office. Eyeballs have contacts. Check. Keys. Check. Pants. Check. I’m good to go. The life of a Sacramento real estate agent never really stops, it just slows down a little bit over the holidays. It’s like my life goes into slow motion and all the seas are calm. As a reminder, I give you this red hibiscus found on Bora Bora.
There will be more listings to take this week. Which is good because the inventory is so low in Sacramento right now that buyer’s agents are emailing and asking me to notify them before a listing goes on the market. That won’t do anybody any good though because there is no “first shot” at a property. All listings are exposed to the widest pool of buyers possible, which means complete mayhem in this market but that’s the way it goes. It doesn’t matter if the listing is a regular home for sale by a seller with equity or if it’s a short sale, every seller deserves equal opportunity among the vast number of buyers.
Sellers don’t want limited exposure. The short sale banks don’t want side deals going on, either, or buyers sneaking in the back door. Everybody gets a chance to buy. I realize it’s super tough to buy a home in Sacramento; it’s tough for many buyers in this market. That’s because some buyers are waiving cash around. Cash offers tend to get priority. Few buyers can compete with a cash offer.
I recall a few weeks ago a buyer’s agent emailed me while I was in Bora Bora. She asked if she could write an offer as all cash and yet reserve the right for her buyer to obtain a hard-money loan. That’s kind of back-door way to write an offer, and while I understand why a buyer would do it, it’s not really a true picture. The true picture is the offer is a hard money loan with the right reserved to pay cash. If you want to be honest about it. So, that’s the way she wrote it, and the seller accepted it.
You don’t need to play games to buy a home in Sacramento.
Photo: Adam Weintraub
