I have a lot of experience with relocation company involved moves, those moves that involve an employer helping and/or paying for the move for their employee. These moves are employee benefits and it is very important to have a conversation about the process before you say yes to that new job. For instance if your company (or a new company) wants you to move across the US here is a few things to discuss with your new boss, employer, or the HR person:
-Will you pay for packing, moving my items (including your vehicles), and unpack in the new home (this is a stressful time and you do not need to be packing/unpacking)
-Will you buy my house? When? How? Will you pay for my loss? (because if you bought a home in the past few years you will have a loss)
-Will you pay for my Realtor?
-Will you pay for travel back and forth until I move my family?
-Have you pulled your credit to see if you can buy a new home?
-What happens when, how, where, and why? Ask one more question then you think is enough!
The move is more important or at least just as important as the salary! Having your family in one state and you in another is not a good life. Having a home in NC rented and you renting a home for you to live in AR is not a good thing either. If you have questions please call me anytime before you say yes to the job!
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
New NC offer to purchase
In NC we have a new "Offer to Purchase Contract" effective January 1 2011. It comes with a few changes for us and before I had used the contract I was really not looking forward to using this new contract. I am OK with "new" and I like change..but this contract seemed to be weird, strange, maybe even silly. That was until I wrote one and discussed it with my buyer. You see the new NC offer has wording like "due diligence"! They wanted buyers to pay for this due diligence period and write two checks to two different people. They (the NC real estate commission) wanted people to loss money for walking away from a deal. Wait maybe that is OK..Yeah that might make buyers think twice about being dumb and walking away.
OK so here is how it works; look at the outline below
=========================================================================================
*________________________________*---------------------*
Offer Due Closing
Signed Diligence (Settlement)
=========================================================================================
The left * starts the deal with everyone signing the contract.
The solid line ___ is the due diligence period (a negotiated period of time that the buyer pays the seller for directly at the time of offer), the buyer pays for this time, the seller can not sell the home during this time, and the buyer can walk away for any reason or no reason during this time, the buyer holds all the cards during this time! If they buy the home the fee is given as a credit. The buyer must do inspections, appraisals, etc during this time.
The middle * is the due diligence date (end of the due diligence period), why is this date important? ONLY if the buyer has money on both sides of this * The date can be up to closing and is a very important date. After this date if the buyer walks away they now will forfeit their Earnest Money (Due diligence money is paid to the seller and Earnest Money goes in the listing agents escrow account)...PLEASE UNDERSTAND FOR THIS DATE TO BE IMPORTANT THERE MUST BE MONEY ON BOTH SIDES OF THIS *
The ---- line is the waiting period...the buyer is done..if they walk away now they will forfeit both Earnest Money and Due Diligence money. My opinion is that this line should be short, the buyer wants it to be short on the right and long on the left, the seller wants it to be short on the left and long on the right.
A few thoughts:
-if the property is older or looks like it may have inspections issues the buyer would want as low as possible due diligence money
-The seller needs something for their time, someone taking their home off the market for 6 weeks for free is not a good idea
Any thoughts?
OK so here is how it works; look at the outline below
=========================================================================================
*________________________________*---------------------*
Offer Due Closing
Signed Diligence (Settlement)
=========================================================================================
The left * starts the deal with everyone signing the contract.
The solid line ___ is the due diligence period (a negotiated period of time that the buyer pays the seller for directly at the time of offer), the buyer pays for this time, the seller can not sell the home during this time, and the buyer can walk away for any reason or no reason during this time, the buyer holds all the cards during this time! If they buy the home the fee is given as a credit. The buyer must do inspections, appraisals, etc during this time.
The middle * is the due diligence date (end of the due diligence period), why is this date important? ONLY if the buyer has money on both sides of this * The date can be up to closing and is a very important date. After this date if the buyer walks away they now will forfeit their Earnest Money (Due diligence money is paid to the seller and Earnest Money goes in the listing agents escrow account)...PLEASE UNDERSTAND FOR THIS DATE TO BE IMPORTANT THERE MUST BE MONEY ON BOTH SIDES OF THIS *
The ---- line is the waiting period...the buyer is done..if they walk away now they will forfeit both Earnest Money and Due Diligence money. My opinion is that this line should be short, the buyer wants it to be short on the right and long on the left, the seller wants it to be short on the left and long on the right.
A few thoughts:
-if the property is older or looks like it may have inspections issues the buyer would want as low as possible due diligence money
-The seller needs something for their time, someone taking their home off the market for 6 weeks for free is not a good idea
Any thoughts?
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Green Build and Money
For the purpose of this blog lets just consider Green Building only in the price, we can discuss saving the world (or not) at a later date. We discuss how using products closer to the building site saves gas, how the home can save resources, how you can save money on your monthly costs, carbon foot print, and all the "green" terms I am sure you have heard about. I want to discuss "green money", as in building green for money.
First here is a disclaimer; I do not pretend to be an expert on Green Building, Do not pretend to be an expert on Green Money, and am not sure about how this all saves the earth. I am a GREEN Designee (took a few courses and study a little about Green).
OK so we got all of that out of the way...Lets talk about Rocky Mount NC new construction over $250,000 sold in 2010. I took out two homes, one was a new construction that was built in 2006 and bank owned, the other was built in 2007 and offered reservoir access/pool/tennis courts. So that left me with 13 new homes sold through our local MLS in 2010 over $250,000. From those 13 homes 7 are Green (or feature green/energy star upgrades), 6 offer very little green/energy star upgrades or none. The 7 homes are all built by the same builder in the same neighborhood. Let's stop and discuss this builder and neighborhood for a moment; it is in a desired area, desired school district, lots with trees, a builder with a good reputation, side walks, attractive homes, bus stop shelter in front (or gathering place), community well, sound distance to I-95, and some of the homes back up to a local semi-busy 2 lane road.
Lets talk numbers (Green Money), this builder is getting on average $144.71 while the other 6 homes sold for on average $98.58! The average new home (these 13 only) sold for $299,346 in 2010. The Green homes had an average square feet of 2007 and the non green homes had an average square feet of 3185. With that said our buyers are willing to pay almost the same price for a home with 63% less space in the home. This happened 53% of the time! I have no knowledge of why 53% of the time buyers bought a home with green features and 63% less space and I do not know if the neighborhood or the builder made a difference. What I do know is that something is working!
Is this the perfect storm (builder, location, setting, schools, timing)or is this the future of home building? Why are no other builders following with this idea? We have a few builders building some energy efficient homes here and there. We have a few builders not even trying? Is this builder smarter? Are the buyers not?
Here is my thoughts on a few of the questions I have asked. The builder was smart to build similar homes together, the Green home built in a row of non Green homes does not have the same effect (on value). The person that pays the same price for a home 63% smaller will not get a return (on value) because the other homes in the row will bring it down! The builder was smart to make the neighborhood charming (sidewalks, gathering area, leave trees in place, add brick/stone to front, etc), he was smart to build Green, and he was smart to build them all together. Now I have no knowledge if he is making a profit, but the new phase is getting ready to be paved this spring! I am pretty sure he is smart enough to keep going only if making a profit!!!
Thoughts?
First here is a disclaimer; I do not pretend to be an expert on Green Building, Do not pretend to be an expert on Green Money, and am not sure about how this all saves the earth. I am a GREEN Designee (took a few courses and study a little about Green).
OK so we got all of that out of the way...Lets talk about Rocky Mount NC new construction over $250,000 sold in 2010. I took out two homes, one was a new construction that was built in 2006 and bank owned, the other was built in 2007 and offered reservoir access/pool/tennis courts. So that left me with 13 new homes sold through our local MLS in 2010 over $250,000. From those 13 homes 7 are Green (or feature green/energy star upgrades), 6 offer very little green/energy star upgrades or none. The 7 homes are all built by the same builder in the same neighborhood. Let's stop and discuss this builder and neighborhood for a moment; it is in a desired area, desired school district, lots with trees, a builder with a good reputation, side walks, attractive homes, bus stop shelter in front (or gathering place), community well, sound distance to I-95, and some of the homes back up to a local semi-busy 2 lane road.
Lets talk numbers (Green Money), this builder is getting on average $144.71 while the other 6 homes sold for on average $98.58! The average new home (these 13 only) sold for $299,346 in 2010. The Green homes had an average square feet of 2007 and the non green homes had an average square feet of 3185. With that said our buyers are willing to pay almost the same price for a home with 63% less space in the home. This happened 53% of the time! I have no knowledge of why 53% of the time buyers bought a home with green features and 63% less space and I do not know if the neighborhood or the builder made a difference. What I do know is that something is working!
Is this the perfect storm (builder, location, setting, schools, timing)or is this the future of home building? Why are no other builders following with this idea? We have a few builders building some energy efficient homes here and there. We have a few builders not even trying? Is this builder smarter? Are the buyers not?
Here is my thoughts on a few of the questions I have asked. The builder was smart to build similar homes together, the Green home built in a row of non Green homes does not have the same effect (on value). The person that pays the same price for a home 63% smaller will not get a return (on value) because the other homes in the row will bring it down! The builder was smart to make the neighborhood charming (sidewalks, gathering area, leave trees in place, add brick/stone to front, etc), he was smart to build Green, and he was smart to build them all together. Now I have no knowledge if he is making a profit, but the new phase is getting ready to be paved this spring! I am pretty sure he is smart enough to keep going only if making a profit!!!
Thoughts?
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