Delayed Possession…Home Buyer & Seller Education



Upcoming Free (& non-promotional) Home Buyer Classes:
Saturday, November 2nd, from 9am-12pm (ish)
       Marshall Community Center, conference room
       1009 E. McLoughlin Blvd, Vancouver WA (kitty corner from Clark College)
Tuesday, November 12th, from 5pm – 8pm (ish)
        Marshall Community Center, Conference room
       1009 E McLoughlin Blvd, Vancouver WA (kitty corner from Clark College)

Saturday, November 16th, from 11am-2pm (ish)
​       Vancouver YMCA, conference room
       11324 NE 51st Circle, Vancouver WA (corner of SR500 & Gher Road/112th Ave).
​

If these class dates and/or times don’t work for you, please let us know.  We understand that you have lives, and families, and work.  We will work something out that works better with your schedule.  Just let us know….                                                                                  

….we also have home seller classes available too…link on left on website
                  

Remember…with reservation…we will throw in lunch, or dinner!  😀


 Happy (almost) Halloween!  

Chris Berg (Cardinal Financial) & I have very EXCITING NEWS…  it is CLIENT APPRECIATION EVENT TIME!


  WooHoo! Chris & I are very excited to have TWO events this winter…


Saturday, November 23rd from 3pm-6pm for FROZEN 2
(short notice..I know, but we just got the contract from AMC)
&
Saturday, December 21, from 3pm-6pm for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
This is just one of our ways that we say, Thank You, for choosing Chris Berg & I to help you with your Home Buying, your Home Selling, and your Lending/Refinancing decisions & business. Your friendship, and Your Referrals mean everything to us. Thank you for referring us to your friends, family, & co-workers
THANK YOU!
….now… disclaimers… 21+ area fills up quickly. Please make sure that if you request those seats that you are, indeed, 21+. (wait…does AMC actually have 21+ over? oh well… that’s what we are going to continue to call it)
Please RSVP tickets to either Chris Berg or myself. You can message us here, tag us on Client Appreciation posts, or email us at chris.berg@cardinalfinancial.com & traciedemars@aol.com . 
 We will also be doing eventbrite for this…as soon as we figure out how to set that up.  LOL
*seating is first come, first served. This event is for clients… past, present, and yes, for future clients too.*


Now…for the less fun stuff, but still good information. We are going to jump right into this weeks topic though, because it is a LONG one this week.  I promise to keep it short, and sweet next time though.  🙂  


What is Delayed Possession?  Why is it important?  


  In our current market, many homeowners are selling their homes, and moving into new ones.  When a seller is living in their home, and selling it to buy a new one, they need the equity from their current home to buy the new home.  So far…so good… right?   
Step 1:
 Homeowner puts home on the market.
Step 2:
homeowner/seller gets offer, accepts, and goes pending
Step 3:
Now homeowner/seller has to find a new home, and goes out house-hunting
Step 4:
Homeowner/now buyer finds a home, makes offer, and gets accepted.  Yay!!


However…remember that homeowner-seller (now buyer) can’t buy new home until they sell old home, right?  They are using the equity from the ‘old’ home to buy the ‘new’ home.  Now, this part is all about timing…  follow me here…
Homeowner-seller (now buyer) has to close on old house first (as seller), and then close on the new home (as buyer) AFTER the ‘old’ home closes .  This is called a “simultaneous closing”…meaning homeowner-seller (now buyer ) closes on old house on Tuesday, and using the equity from their old home, closes on new home on Wednesday…or closes on both homes on the same day.  Of course, the homeowner-seller (now buyer) can not move into their new home until it closes, and they can’t close on their new home until they close on their old home…so what does the homeowner-seller (now buyer) do?  Why..they ask for Delayed Possession, of course. 
  The homeowner-seller (now buyer) requests that their buyers (for their old home) gives them time in their old home after closing so they can move into their new home.  At this point you might think that this all comes after the deal is accepted, but it’s not.  The delayed possession is agreed upon when the offer is written.  


  Ok…  so we’re out looking at homes… some are vacant, and many have homeowners in them.  We find the ‘perfect’ home, but the listing says that the seller needs time after closing to move into their new home. The seller is asking for Delayed Possession.  Maybe the seller counters your offer requesting delayed possession… either scenario is likely.   Sometimes delayed possession is only a few days, and sometimes it is a couple of weeks.  In the case of multiple offers, and it’s only a few days, the buyer might say, “go ahead and stay in our new home (your old home) for a couple of days after closing…rent free.  Sometimes, when there is no other offers, or the sellers is asking for more than just a couple of days, the buyer will request ‘rentback’.  This means that the seller will pay rent for the period of time that they’re still in the home after closing on it to the new buyers.   We can always ask for rentback when the seller is requesting delayed possession…again, this means that the seller will pay you rent for the period of time that the seller stays in the home after closing…usually at an amount equal to one day of your mortgage per every day they are there.  However, just a reminder, in a multiple offer situation you might not be asking for rent back to make your offer more ‘competitive’.  


  Now that you know what Delayed Possession is… let’s explain it a bit further.  Once you close on your new home your home owners insurance kicks in.  The homeowner-seller  switches over to a renters insurance.  Renters insurance, as you know, only covers the contents of the home…not the home itself… that’s yours since you are now the homeowner.    So what happens if ‘what if’ does happen?


 This next story happened a few  years ago now, but I had a client who put her home on the market, she received 5 offers on her home.  Three of the offers offered my client delayed possession, and the offer she accepted gave her 14 days after closing to close and move into her new home…rent free.  This was a good thing for her because it actually took us 6 days after closing her home to close on her new home because her seller had not done the requested repairs from the inspection, and we refused to close until we had those receipts showing those repairs had been done.  Sometimes…this happens too.  Always get your receipts for repairs prior to closing, and if you want a walk-through of the home…get that done before closing too.  Once it closes… it’s hard to go back.  Anyhow, we closed on her New home on a Monday, and keys were transferred the next day because HER seller needed 24 hours after closing to move.  
That Friday night my client, and her SO packed up her home, and left at 10pm.  Plan was to finish on Saturday afternoon after work, and clean the home Saturday evening/Sunday.  I received a call from her  Saturday afternoon, when she got there, that she thinks someone broke into their old home after they left on Friday because a window was ajar, the back door was unlocked, and they found folded cardboard on the basement floor, a couple of empty beer cans, and the unwrapped remains of the kid’s halloween candy that was left in the home.  They noticed the spare keys were missing, and a couple of other small items…but all in all…. nothing else seemed to be amiss.  It was weird…and kind of funny…  someone broke in, ate all the candy (touching nothing in a full fridge or freezer), drank a couple of beers…and took a nap.  She switched out the locks though, and braced the ajar window, to be on the safe side since the spare keys were now missing.  
  Then I got a frantic call Sunday night…  well, it wasn’t so harmless after all…  this halloween candy-napper had also cut the lines to the heat pump & furnace and stripped out the copper lines…about 10ft of it.   S/he also cut the the clutch out of my clients SO’s motorcycle.  Now…we have an issue…. who is responsible for this?  I called the buyer/new homeowners agent to let her know what was going on so she could let her clients, the new homeowners, know.  So what happens now?  Well, the buyer/new home owner’s insurance needs to be notified, and my client (the seller) is responsible for their co-pay/deductible.  Why does it shake out this way?  Because the rental agreement says that the new homeowners insurance is to take care of it because they own the home now…. but the original purchase/sale agreement says that the home will be received by the new homeowner in the same condition as it was when they made the offer, and did the home inspection.  All systems/appliances also need to be in working order, and my client had not transferred keys yet because she is not the renter and in possession of the home still.  


 I’ll be honest with you… this could have gotten very ugly…  in the end, my client was going to either pay for the deductible, or the damage…whatever is less, but she wasn’t happy about it.  It ended up being cheaper to pay the new homeowners deductible.  While the new home owners, and their insurance were liable, she was still in possession of the home so it’s a mixed bag.  She spent her last night in the old home to make sure that halloween candy napper didn’t come back…with her two big dogs, and a bat.  



  This is an extreme situation, and was the first time, and thankfully only time, in 15 years I have had something like this happen at this stage in the transaction.  Typically, with delayed possession we worry more about whether or not the home is left in a clean condition, or if the homeowner/seller is going to leave the home a mess, or trash still in the home.  I know plenty of agents, including myself, who have spent time cleaning a home after a seller left it messy.  When the home is vacant prior to closing (even if it is after signing), we can do a walk through of the vacant home…in fact, I am doing a walk through of a vacant home on Friday.  When the homeowner/seller isn’t moving out until after closing though…a walk through is more difficult since the sellers are still in possession of the home.  95% of the time, the homeowner/seller leaves the home empty and fairly clean…but sometimes we deal with that 5% of the time when they don’t.  During the home inspection period, you can request that the seller has the home professionally cleaned (and/or the carpets professionally cleaned) upon closing, and pre-paid.  Receipts are important.  Of course, if the home has bigger repair considerations during the inspection, you may want to concentrate on getting those repairs, and the receipts for those repairs.  

  This one is pretty fresh still…. I had a closing last month where the seller had 24 hours after closing to move into their new home, and was going to have the home professionally cleaned.  This was a hectic transaction to begin with, and the seller had been caught hiding things about the home.  Oy vay…, and he was texting threats to both his agent & me.  It was a crap-show.  However, it was also a very good deal for my buyers.  I showed up to the home to get keys, and to make certain that the sellers were gone.  They were!  Hallelujah!  …and then they were not.. oh no…  Yep, seller showed up and parked in the driveway.  I thought, “ok…he’s just going to pay for the housecleaner that was in the home”, but oh no…he got in a fight with the housecleaner, and then took off.  She started packing up, but wait!  The home wasn’t clean yet!  So, they got in an argument because the seller refused to pay her because she wouldn’t clean is crap out of the garage.  Housecleaners do not do that.  So, what do we do?  Well, part of real estate is that sometimes it falls on us to make it right….as much as we can.  I paid the housecleaner to finish the job, and I called my son in law and husband to help clean out the garage with my buyer.  My husband switched out all their locks, for safety.  Now…what you don’t know yet is that the seller took the mailbox, removed laundry room shelves, and …. get this… removed the laundry room cupboards.  He literally cut the molding, and unscrewed the cupboards from the wall.  Yeah.. that was an attached item and shouldn’t be removed.  So what happens with all of that?  Nothing….  Again, this was an extreme case. The seller was crazy, and even refused to sign for 3 days.  See… he didn’t actually want to sell…it was his wife who wanted to sell, so he made it difficult every step of the way.  Good times…..


When I am working with a seller as a sellers agent, I advise them to just have a housecleaner come in when they are moved out… it is a little bit of money, but relieves so much stress for them, and for their buyer.  Usually they do this, and it is nice for the new homeowners to take possession of a clean home. Per the contract, the home is to be left in a ‘broom clean’ condition…..swept, vacuumed, mopped, wiped down, etc.  However, one persons idea of clean is not the next persons idea of clean.  I also remind sellers to remove all garbage from the garage and around the home.  Many sellers leave extra paint, maybe extra flooring, or other such items for the new homeowners….in fact… I left those items for the new homeowners when I sold my old home.  This is pretty common, and usually appreciated.

When I am working with a buyer, I’m always hoping that the home is left clean, and usually it is.  Most sellers do leave the home clean….thankfully.  Sometimes though…… sometimes sellers leave other items.  Usually it isn’t too much, and usually just things they ‘forgot’.  Call your Realtor, and we will help you deal with it.  It’s what we do.  What you are reading here are two very extreme cases.   This doesn’t usually happen… it’s very rare, so you can start breathing again.  🙂  


Anyhow, this all being said… Delayed Possession is something we are dealing with right now, and fairly frequently as more and more homeowners are selling their current homes to move into their next home.  It’s important to understand how it works, and ways that we can try to protect you.  Remember…walk throughs (if we can), and receipts.  Those are 2 key things.  In short though… don’t be afraid of delayed possession as it is pretty likely you may be in this position.  We have delayed possessions quite frequently where nothing exciting happens.  I like it when nothing exciting happens.   I tell you…there’s a reason why I don’t drink much… I’m afraid if I start..that I won’t stop some days…. 




 
Upcoming Topics:

What happens AFTER the home inspection?
What do I need to buy a home,
What if I don’t have a Down Payment? 
Pre-Approvals…what, why… and the importance of getting one

Debt to Income Ratios….What is this?



Last Week:  Buyers Due Diligence


Have a great day, and I will talk to you soon, 
;-D 
Tracie DeMars 
Real Estate broker 
Re/Max – Van Mall 
360/ 903-3504 cell 
360/ 882-3600 fax 
www.traciedemars.com 
traciedemars@aol.com
 
“Interested in free and non promotional home education classes?  Go to www.freehomebuyerclasses.com , or www.learningtobuyahome.com for local upcoming home buyer and home SELLER classes, or facebook: Tracie DeMars Real Estate for my home buyer education blog.”

“Listen to the mustn’ts, child. Listen to the don’ts. Listen to the shouldn’ts, the impossibles, the won’ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me… Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.” 
   – Shel Silverstein, American poet, cartoonist and composer, (1930 – 1999).

Buyers Due Diligence… Real Estate Education

Upcoming Free (& non-promotional) Home Buyer Classes:

Thursday, October 17th, from 5pm – 8pm (ish)
Marshall Community Center, Conference room
1009 E McLoughlin Blvd, Vancouver WA (kitty corner from Clark College)

Saturday, October 19th, from 12pm-3pm (ish)
​       Vancouver YMCA, conference room
11324 NE 51st Circle, Vancouver WA (corner of SR500 & Gher Road/112th Ave).

Saturday, November 2nd, from 9am-12pm (ish)
Marshall Community Center, conference room
1009 E. McLoughlin Blvd, Vancouver WA (kitty corner from Clark College)

If these class dates and/or times don’t work for you, please let us know.  We understand that you have lives, and families, and work.  We will work something out that works better with your schedule.  Just let us know….                                                                                  

….we also have home seller classes available too…link on left on website
                  
Remember…with reservation…we will throw in lunch, or dinner!  😀
                                ~~~~~~~~~
Happy Autumn

FALL!!!    HappyHallowThanksMas!  The last 3 months of the year are my favorite.  I love the argument between Pumpkin Spice or Apple Cider (Apple Cider is the best by the way followed closely by all things peppermint). I love the colors, the smells, the holi-daze, the weather, and the coziness of it all.  I have a body made for winter clothes. Smile  I know.. it’s strange, but I love gray days that make you want to snuggle in with some hot tea, and a good book, and I love those clear fall days where the sky is so blue & the colors on the trees are so bright…  Ok… I’m waxing poetic here, so I better stop while I’m ahead.

  We do have an exciting event coming up though…2 of them actually….  Winter Client Appreciation Events!
In November we will be hosting Frozen 2 & in December… well, it’s STAR WARS time!!  Chris Berg and I will be limiting tickets to 6 tickets please unless you have talked to me or Chris Berg about it first. We are excited to see you soon!!  🙂 …and Thank YOU.. Thank you for your referrals!  Thank you for recommending us, or the classes to those you know (and on Facebook too), and THANK YOU for letting us to be part of your home adventures. We appreciate you so muchHeart
 
 
Now…on to our weekly home buyer education!  I know I said we are going to talk about what happens AFTER the home inspection, but first I thougt we should talk about about Buyers Due Diligence, and why this is so important for you.
   I saw a very interesting home this week that was right across the street from a cemetery.  Now, that wouldn’t bother me, but for some folks…that would be a BIG thing.  My clients liked the land but did not like the house…the house was …  interesting.  It was a 1925 home, that had been ‘worked’ on over the years, and probably not professionally.  When I am showing homes to clients, I get asked many questions about the home….some I can answer and some I can’t.   Some of the answers we can find out, and some…well, you never really ‘know’ a home until you are the one living in it.  So, what are some questions I can not answer… is the home haunted?  Um….I don’t know?  Has there been a violent crime in the home or in the area?  Um…I don’t know?  Believe it or not, that isn’t considered a relevant fact when listing the home as it doesn’t actually affect the home.  
   When selling a home, the seller (and sellers agent) is only obligated to disclose known material facts about the home on the sellers disclosure, and this is only  about the home during the current sellers ownership.  So what is a ‘material fact’?   A ‘material fact’ is considered to be something that structurally affects the home.  The sellers disclosure is about 6 pages long and the seller is ‘supposed to’ disclose all known facts about the home on it.  However, if anyone has teenagers you know how often ‘supposed to’ gets done.  Some sellers will disclose ALL facts about the homes….even those items that have been repaired, some sellers will only disclose those items that they haven’t gotten around to fixing, and some sellers just have no idea about anything in their home.  Of course, this is why we do a home inspection.  It isn’t that you can’t trust the sellers, but when it comes down to it, most sellers don’t know anything about their home.  This is called ‘Buyers Due Diligence’.  A buyer does have some responsibility for doing some research on the home, and area, that they are wanting, or trying to, buy in.  If your buyers agent knows anything about the home or area then we have to legal responsibility to disclose it.  In Washington, all sellers are required to fill out the 6 page sellers disclosure on their own.  Their Realtor can not do it for them, or help them fill it out.….however, if the seller is a bank, or it is an estate, or an investor then there won’t be any sellers disclosures, or if there is, most questions will be answered with “don’t know”. For every question on the sellers disclosures, the sellers have 4 choices to answer…  “yes, no, don’t know, or NA”, and every question must be answered….no empty boxes.  When you receive a copy of the sellers disclosure though …remember to take it with a grain of salt, and hire a good inspector.  Many sellers now will even just put a majority of ‘don’t know’ answers on the sellers disclosure so as to not have any liability.  The majority of sellers aren’t trying to ‘hide’ anything about the home, they just truly don’t know.  A realtor will hand the sellers disclosure to their client, the seller, and that is it.  We, real estate agents, can not help the seller fill out the sellers disclosure at all.  If you have any questions regarding anything on the sellers disclosure, your Realtor can request more information (if there is any) from the sellers through their sellers agent.  Make sure you also address any concern you have regarding the homes condition to the home inspector you hire.  He (or she) should be able to help you with that.  The inspector I usually refer out encourages the buyer to walk with him during the home inspection so that the buyer is part of that inspection.  I like to call it a ‘crash course in homeowning’.  Relaxed By the time he is done with the inspection, my client usually knows more about the home than the current owner does!  I can’t stress it enough….ask questions!  You are paying for the home inspection, so walk around with the home inspector, ask questions, learn about what the inspector is checking, and be a part of the home inspection. 
 
   Sometimes, but not often, we will see sellers purposely try to hide something. This sucks.  I had this happen recently with a client. The home in question had been on the market for about 5 months…with 3 different Realtors, and had been pending 2 times before with sale fails. Ok…red flags…3 different Realtors in such a short period of time? Two prior sale fails? hmmm… I asked the current Realtor why the sale fails, and he said there were financing issues.  Ok, sometimes that happens.  I have had that happen on listings of mine too.  Current Realtor was very eager for an offer,and called me about closing costs, etc. My clients liked the home, and the listed price was attractive.  It did need some cosmetic work, but that was ok, for the price and the closing costs. Fast forward to home inspection, and the home passed with flying colors.  Only things that came up was a recalled electric panel (common for the age of the home), and lack of insulation under the home.  Insulation under the home is not required for the age of the home, and was something my clients were willing to do later. The recalled panel would need replaced prior to appraisal as that is something that most likely would be called out.  Where the big issue came was during the sewer scope…  the sewer line from the home to the street had a 35 ft ‘bend’ in it.  Sewer lines need to go down 1 inch for every foot for optimum flow (yay…the things I know that are weird to know), and due to land settling, etc…this homes sewer line had a dip in it before it went to the street. Ok….it’s not like the seller could have known this right? Well, normally I’d agree with you, but in this case he DID KNOW!  Plumber asked us if we knew and we said no (because how would we?)  Plumber then goes on to say that,”well, that’s weird, because the seller knows. This home has had a recent sewer scope already done.  There’s some paint lines in the street that looks like they were scrubbed off.”   Uhhh….what?!  I send this information to the sellers agent (who has no idea),and he assures me that if they knew it would have been on the sellers disclosures (it wasn’t). Sellers agent calls his client and then calls me back. At this point both the sellers agent & I know the seller is full of it because the seller told his agent that there was nothing wrong with the sewer line….because he had the city come out and check it a couple of weeks ago and they hydro jetted it. That all of this was just the plumbing contractor and my clients trying to get more money out of him.  Honestly folks, that was our first indication that this deal was going to be hairy & scary…  We requested the recalled panel to be replaced and the sewer line repaired. The seller sent his agent a bid for the sewer line repair that was dated a full 3 weeks BEFORE my client made their offer. When the seller was with Agent #2, and during the 2nd sale fail.  Sale failed because of financing issues…my tush..
My clients loved many things about the home, and except for the sewer line (and that it needed paint and flooring), it was in excellent condition with a newer roof and new windows. It also had the yard & 2 living spaces that my clients wanted. So, we persisted. Seller did have the panel switched out (with much grumbling).  It cost the seller $700 more than it should have because he tried to go ‘cheap’ and had to have it redone. The sewer line failed the sewer scope. . at least twice.  The bid that the seller presented was for $10,000 to repair the line.  So now my client had a choice….  do we back out? Do we require the sewer line to be repaired? What do we do? At least one of the previous buyers had backed out because the seller refused to repair the line.  Discussion time…  many of the homes we were looking at with this price range were either smaller and in good condition, or needed a new roof soon (about $7,000 estimate), or new windows (about $5,000),or similar. The sewer line is currently working.  Does it need to be under surveillance? Yes. Will it need to be corrected at some point? Yes. Does it need to be done right now? No.  For my clients they decided to go with the evil you know vs the evil that they may find in another home.  This home was in excellent condition with many things already done (like the new roof, windows, & now a new electric panel)…the only thing that will need to be done will be the sewer line. One thing vs many possible things at a different home.  So I spoke with the sellers agent (who was very dismayed to find out his seller had been lying to him), and they offered a split of the repair cost. What this means is that we had a $10,000 sewer line repair bid. The sellers offered another $4000 in closing costs to offset that repair.  I called my clients lender to ask if my buyers could use all of those closing costs (whatever isn’t used is returned to the sellers), and they could!  My clients accepted that compromise as this freed up some money for my clients to do what they wanted to the home to move in… those cosmetic things that they didn’t have to put off now.  In the end it worked out.  Of course…that was until closing day….but that is a story for next week….

It’s not often that seller will blatantly lie on a sellers disclosure.  Most of the time it is something that the sellers don’t know about that shows up on a home inspection, or a sewer scope.  However, that is why we do inspections…  because of the things that people don’t know, don’t think about, and rarely…try to hide.  As I said in my last email… buying a home is a lot like buying a used car.  Most of the time it is all good, but occasionally…occasionally… you find those folks who are trying to get away with something.  

 
   Your realtor will help you find out as much about the home as possible.  Your agent should be present at your home inspection, and so should you.  However, whether or not the home is haunted or not, we really can’t help you with.  Whether or not there has been a violent crime in the home or area is another thing that we really can’t help you with, but we CAN help you by providing some places where you can do some research.  Has anyone died in the home?  Again….I don’t know…, but if it is an older home, and/or an estate?  Maybe you should leave out some milk and cookies occasionally?  Laughing
   What about that new building being built in the neighborhood?  Your Realtor probably doesn’t know what it is, and honestly we shouldn’t guess.  That is something that a buyer will want to do some research on.  Is that garage conversion permitted?  Call the city/county.  Your Realtor will help you find the information, but when it comes down to it, because of past legal problems, we are now limited on the extent that we can delve into everything….but we can help you get there still.  It is weird, but there it is.  There is a lot your Realtor can, and will do for you, and we will do all that we can to make sure that you are getting the best customer service possible.  Your Realtor should help you to make sure that you are performing your buyers due diligence to make sure that you won’t get any unexpected surprises later.  I am a huge fan of talking with neighbors….neighbors are a great source of information on a home.  🙂  Please remember that you are not just buying the home, you are buying the neighborhood.  One of the questions I always ask my clients is if they have thought about the area they want to move to?  Have they looked into schools, if that is important.  Have they considered locations regarding work, or family/friends?  I encourage my clients to drive around, and check out the neighborhoods they’re interested in.  Drive by the homes you are interested in seeing, look at the neighbors, yards, parks, cars, etc…  check out those things that are important to you.  Vancouver doesn’t really have a ‘good side’, or ‘bad side’…Clark county has a lot of ‘pocket neighborhoods’.  In a two mile radius you can have million dollar homes, new developments, ‘sketchy’ neighborhoods, and established ‘homey’ neighborhoods.  Clark County has something for everyone!   What are you looking for in a home/neighborhood?  What are your top 3 things you want (not counting price)?  As a realtor we can not ‘steer’ you towards, or away, from any neighborhood.  Our job is to help you find the best home we can, in your price range, that fits what you want.  As an agent, I will help you get all the information I can, or direct you to places that can help you get that information.  For example….census.gov is an excellent site to check out neighborhoods, and schools.  Check it out!  
   So…buyers due diligence….talk to neighbors, walk around the home, and neighborhood… and write down a list of questions.  Ask your inspector about these questions to check out.  Ask your real estate agent to help you find out some answers to these questions, or if they can’t find the answers, help you find some places where you can do some research or ask questions.  Your Realtor is here to help you!  Remember that your Realtor works FOR you.   Make sure you know what you are getting into….and any questions?  ASK!  …and keep asking until you get answers!   As always, if you have any questions, please call or email me…I am always here to help.  🙂  Remember…I am a real estate broker, and I look forward to helping you on your home buying adventure…and assisting you to get those keys.  😀  Whether you are buying, or selling your home, my goal is to be the real estate broker you think of.  I really want to help you with your first time, and every time.  I believe that real estate is about relationships…..and no…that is not a shameless plug!  LOL
I hope this helps you this week!  Please, if you have any questions, please feel free to call, email, text, or even facebook me anytime.  I am always here to help!
Information is power, and I hope that I am help you!  Good luck, and as always…May the odds be ever in your favor out there….  If you are looking for a real estate agent, I would love to be able to help you.  
 
I hope that explains this a bit, but if you have any questions, or comments please call or email me anytime!  Please remember that while I mean these emails/blogs to be helpful, and educational, I am still hoping that you will call, or email me.  I would love to help you with your home buying, or home selling adventure!  🙂
 
    As always….this is just a quick overview…. again…and I can’t say this enough…please remember that your agent is NOT a salesperson, and should not be acting like one.  Real Estate is not really about houses, it is about relationships.  Your agent, and your lender work for YOU.  You drive the bus…we are merely GPS to help you get to your goals.  Like the classes, this weekly blog email is to help you with your home adventure.  The goal is to be informative and non-promotional.  🙂  We are, however, hoping you will call and want us to help with your adventure.  
 
If you have any questions about this, or something you have heard…or if you would like me to help you with your home adventure, please call, email,  text, or facebook me anytime.  I am, as always, happy to help!
 
Thank you again for your business and your referrals!!  …and thank you for referring these classes to your friends, family, and co-workers. 
 
 .…disclaimer…if you have already purchased a home, or would no longer like to receive these emails, please let me know and I will be happy to remove you from any further mailings… 
 
 
Upcoming Topics:
What happens AFTER the home inspection?
What do I need to buy a home,
What if I don’t have a Down Payment?
Pre-Approvals…what, why… and the importance of getting one
Debt to Income Ratios….What is this?
 
Last Week:  Home Inspections & seller disclosure
 
Have a great day, and I will talk to you soon,
;-D
Tracie DeMars
Real Estate broker 
Re/Max – Van Mall
360/ 903-3504 cell
360/ 882-3600 fax
www.traciedemars.com
traciedemars@aol.com

“Interested in free and non promotional home education classes?  Go to www.learningtobuyahome.com or www.freehomebuyerclasses.com for local upcoming home buyer and home SELLER classes, or facebook: Tracie DeMars Real Estate for my home buyer education blog.”

“Listen to the mustn’ts, child. Listen to the don’ts. Listen to the shouldn’ts, the impossibles, the won’ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me… Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.”
– Shel Silverstein, American poet, cartoonist and composer, (1930 – 1999).