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How to Never Sell your Home

Categories: Uncategorized Posted on October 25th, 2009

So much is written about how to sell your home (you should do this and you should do that) but I thought maybe it would be prudent to point out some of the things that would make it impossible to sell your home. 

Most people know about the big problems, things like mold, radiation, and possibly that federal highway right-of-way.  But there are many others!  One just happened to me today on an escrow that I have and I thought I would share it with you.

I’m sure many of you know people or possibly even yourself who have thought,  “Oh, wouldn’t it be nice to have a deck, sun room or attached shed on my property.” so you went ahead and built one but you forgot one detail: the need to get a permit.  But of course, one can get a little busy and permits were not a priority for you at the time, so you the construction went ahead anyway.  Now I’m sure you’re deck, sun room or attached shed is just fine but guess what: when you go to sell that property and the buyer’s appraiser starts asking the city or the county about that construction and no permit was filed, you now will have a problem with the buyer getting his financing.

So please, property owners / sellers do yourself a big favor: make sure that you get all the necessary permits for that construction project that you seek to complete.  One day when you go to sell, you’ll be very glad you did.

Photo credit:   Paul Keleher

Posted by Scott Baxter // Please leave a comment.

Home inspections – should every home buyer get one?

Categories: Buyer Posted on October 25th, 2009

You’ve heard it before, I’m sure.  Most real estate brokers will advise you to get a home inspection during your inspection period.  On any residential property that you place an offer on I would have to agree, however there are a few exceptions. Sometimes if you want a close quickly on a property that you feel comfortable with, you may waive the inspection.  For example, if you’re someone that has particular knowledge and expertise you may decide that inspections are not needed.  Or maybe you are trying to close on a bank owned or short sale property and it is being offered “AS-IS” and you would rather save your money to do the repairs rather than identify them.

Oftentimes a broker will ask you to sign a document that you’ve waived the inspection on a particular residential property that you have decided to purchase without an inspection.  If you’ve decided to not do the inspection go ahead with the purchase I would say, “fine, not a problem, sign this waiver”.  But just remember if that’s a course of action you choose to take, you just have to deal with issues after the sale.

That’s often the case anyway even when you do get an inspection. I can’t tell you how many times an inspection has been ordered and many things were found and placed on a report. The buyer went ahead with the purchase anyway and maybe asked for a couple of things to be fixed in escrow. Most of things were small items and were fixed after the close of escrow.  Now you might ask yourself, “what’s the point in getting inspection?”  Well, real estate professionals like inspections more than anyone because it helps protect against liability issues.  I agree, but if somebody does not want to do an inspection decides to waive the inspection that’s fine too, sign this waiver.

Most inspections cost somewhere between $250 and $350. If someone is on the fence whether they want to do the inspection or not I will tend to say, “go for it. Having a nice little report your hand is at least some knowledge that will give you some peace of mind during the course of your purchase.”  When you’re in the Prescott Arizona area let me know if you want to find out about a few good inspectors and I’ll be happy to share what I know.

Thanks for reading and best of luck with your real estate search.

Photo Credit:  RedJar

Posted by Scott Baxter // Please leave a comment.

Posterous.com is a “Photo Twitter”

Categories: Uncategorized Posted on October 13th, 2009

One of the best tools I found out about attending the REBarCamp in San Francisco last summer is this nifty website called Posterous.

Great little website allows mobile users to take photos or videos, and upload them with email to Posterous. Furthermore, Posterous will autopost to twitter, facebook, flickr, and even your own photo blog. Now that is what I call syndication!

Posted by Scott Baxter // Please leave a comment.