In today’s intricate real estate landscape, diverse financing methods are available. Among these is the Land Contract. Let’s dive into whether this option suits your needs.
What’s a Land Contract?
Essentially, a Land Contract is an alternative to the usual mortgage option. Instead of obtaining funds from a bank or lender to purchase property, the buyer pays the property’s seller directly until the complete amount is settled.
How does it function?
Both parties, the buyer and seller, set the financial terms including the payment structure, interest rates, and duration. They also decide on practical matters, such as who covers taxes and insurance. Upon finalizing, a Memorandum of Land Contract is documented, signifying the conveyance of equitable title to the buyer – this provides the right to use and enjoy the property.
Payment dynamics:
An initial deposit, or earnest money, is made during the agreement signing, which later contributes to the closing costs and initial down payment. At the closure, the remaining amount for the down payment and other closing costs are settled. Monthly payments commence from the subsequent month and continue throughout the agreed contract duration. Often, a lump sum, or balloon payment, might be due at the contract’s conclusion.
Typically, a Land Contract has a shorter duration compared to regular mortgages – for instance, 5, 7, or 10 years. Although terms can be extended, this results in reduced early payments but introduces a balloon payment at the end. Should a balloon payment arise, the buyer has options like full payment, term renegotiation, refinancing, or selling.
Ownership dynamics:
There are dual title types:
Equitable Title: This grants property use and enjoyment rights. Over time, the buyer accumulates equity and generally has liberty over property modifications.
Legal Title: This represents actual property ownership and transfers to the buyer once the land contract is settled in full. In the Land Contract context, the buyer possesses equitable title, whereas the seller maintains the legal title, implying full title isn’t immediately available to the buyer.
Why opt for this?
The primary advantage of Land Contracts is the flexibility in financing, minimizing financial institution interventions. It’s the seller who governs aspects like credit criteria, down payments, and interest rates, which can benefit those with compromised credit records or variable incomes.
Weighing the Pros and Cons:
Pros:
Potentially easier property sale.
Possible tax benefits.
Consistent income stream for the seller.
Sellers earn interest on remaining balance.
Reduced initial buyer outlay.
Fewer closing costs.
Seller benefits in the event of buyer default.
Cons:
The buyer doesn’t immediately get the legal title.
Complications if the seller defaults on an existing mortgage.
Dependence on the seller.
Potential for elevated interest rates.
Considering Land Contracts:
If facing financing hurdles, a land contract might be your solution. However, always consult with a lender to understand all available options. At Vanguard, we’re here to navigate this journey with you. We understand real estate transactions’ intricacies and pledge to keep all parties informed from start to finish, ensuring a seamless and transparent process. If expert advice on lending and real estate is what you’re seeking, look no further. Our esteemed clientele is ready to assist you every step of the way.
Are you a proud homeowner in Saline, Michigan, contemplating selling your property? If so, you’re in luck! The real estate market in Saline is thriving, and with the right team by your side, you can maximize your property’s value and ensure a smooth and successful sale. Look no further than the Arbor Move Team, the experts you can trust to market, list, and sell your home for top dollar. Let’s dive into why the Arbor Move Team is your go-to resource for selling your home in Saline.
Unmatched Local Knowledge:
The Arbor Move Team has an in-depth understanding of the Saline real estate market, as well as the surrounding communities. Their knowledge of local trends, property values, and market fluctuations allows them to price your home competitively to attract potential buyers while ensuring you get the most out of your investment.
Effective Marketing Strategies:
When it comes to selling your home, marketing is everything. The Arbor Move Team employs cutting-edge marketing strategies to showcase your property to the widest audience possible. From professional photography and virtual tours to targeted online advertising and social media campaigns, they leave no stone unturned to generate interest in your home.
Personalized Attention and Support:
Selling a home can be a complex process, and the Arbor Move Team understands the importance of personalized attention. They will work closely with you to understand your goals, address your concerns, and guide you through every step of the selling process. With their expertise, you can navigate negotiations, inspections, and paperwork with confidence.
Comprehensive Home Evaluation:
Determining the right listing price for your home is crucial. The Arbor Move Team provides a comprehensive home evaluation, taking into account various factors such as location, size, features, and recent sales in the area. This ensures that your home is priced competitively to attract potential buyers without undervaluing your investment.
Wide Network of Buyers:
Arbor Move has an extensive network of potential buyers actively looking for properties in Saline. By listing your home with them, you gain access to this pool of qualified buyers, increasing the chances of a quick and successful sale.
Staging and Presentation:
First impressions matter, and the Arbor Move Team knows how to present your home in the best possible light. They can offer advice on staging and minor home improvements that can make a significant difference in attracting buyers and increasing your home’s value.
Sell Your Home Now with Arbor Move:
Ready to take the next step and list your home for sale? Don’t miss the opportunity to work with the best team in Saline, Michigan – the Arbor Move Team. Their track record of success, unmatched local knowledge, and dedication to their clients make them the ideal choice for your real estate needs.
To get started on selling your home with confidence, contact the Arbor Move Team for more information. Simply visit this link: List Your Home Now to learn more and get in touch with their experienced agents.
The Arbor Move Team is committed to ensuring that your selling experience is positive and rewarding. So, why wait? Sell your home in Saline with the Arbor Move Team and embark on your next adventure with the assurance of a successful and lucrative sale.
When trying to sell or buy a property, it is essential to take full advantage of everything at your disposal. Even just boosting the price of your property a little, or lowering the cost of a property you are interested in by a marginal amount, can be of enormous help in the end. And one of the best things to use is pre-MLS listings! So let’s take a closer look at the benefits of accessing pre-MLS listings in Ann Arbor.
What does pre-MLS mean?
Before we discuss the benefits of accessing pre-MLS listings in Ann Arbor, we must fully understand the term. In short, ‘pre-MLS’ is the period before a property is officially listed on the market. It is marketed to a limited group of real estate agents during this period. Often those associated with a particular agency. The actual worth of working with a real estate agent shows here perfectly. Because without the connections a realtor brings to the table, it is almost impossible to access pre-MLS listings. ‘Pre-MLS’ listings are sometimes called ‘coming soon listings’ or ‘pre-marketing listings,’ which does a slightly better job conveying what they are.
However, not that those pre-MLS listings are not all too common. And it is not guaranteed that every realtor you work with will have access to them. Still, you can at least rest assured they’re present in Ann Arbor!
The benefits for buyers
The first to make an offer
The first of the benefits of accessing pre-MLS listings in Ann Arbor as a buyer is a fact that you have the chance to be the first to make an offer once the listing does go live. Other people would have to first discover the property, then view it, and finally settle on whether or not they are interested in it. Meanwhile, you would already have an offer in! You might even be well on convincing the seller to close early. Of course, this also means you will have a chance to better examine the property. Learn about it, and even request relevant home inspections if you feel compelled to do it. And you should, especially if it’s your first time buying a home and you don’t know what to look out for.
Potential for a private deal
Of course, another of the potential benefits of accessing pre-MLS listings in Ann Arbor is that it might not be necessary for the property to go up on regular listings. Sometimes, if you approach the seller, it may be possible to come to an understanding that will see you purchase the property early. Remember that you would typically need to make a rather impressive offer to convince them to close a sale so early. After all, they would give up on the prospect that competition might drive the price even higher.
A better grasp of what’s on offer
Knowing what the upcoming listings are can sometimes be invaluable. People can give up on relatively decent properties they like just in the hope that something nicer might show up. If you can, with complete certainty, tell that won’t be happening, then you can make yourself follow through with a purchase. Even if it’s not perfectly ideal for your needs, sometimes picking up a good deal is preferable to ignoring it and going for an even worse option. Of course, if you can afford to wait, this is not as big of a concern.
The benefits for sellers
A faster sale
One of the essential benefits of accessing pre-MLS listings in Ann Arbor as a seller is a potential to find an ideal buyer faster. In a way, this is somewhat similar to the previous buyer scenario. However, there is an essential shift in control here. As a buyer, you are reliant on the decisions of the seller. As the seller, the ball is in your court. And if you need to close a deal quickly, such as trying to sell during the off-season at the end of the year, you can. That might mean losing out on some potential profits, though, so it is typically not recommended.
Getting a feel for current market interest
Getting your property on the pre-MLS listing will let you gauge what people think about it early. That is especially useful if you plan on selling a fixer-upper or a property with some minor issues. The current demand, focus on the quality of the properties, etc. They all show in the potential buyer’s response to your property. If the response is particularly bad, you should consider taking the listing down and at least doing some light renovation before trying again. That would also give you more time to plan, such as moving to Michigan from another state and looking for interstate movers to find expert help. Just try to avoid spending too much on renovations in such a scenario! If you go over your budget, nothing good will happen, and you’d unlikely earn that money back.
Getting the word out
Of course, if you have a genuinely competitive property, then the last of the benefits of accessing pre-MLS listings in Ann Arbor is drumming up interest in it early. Even if your property is not the most competitive, it’s still lovely to rouse some interest in advance. It would let you ensure that more potential buyers visit you! And, in turn, this might boost competitiveness over your property at least a little. Which would help it sell better and go a long way toward helping you fund the purchase of your ideal home in Ann Arbor. So long as you don’t rush the sale in this scenario, you should be golden.
Final Comment
Now that you understand the benefits of accessing pre-MLS listings in Ann Arbor, it should be evident that you need to work with a realtor who can get you this perk. Otherwise, you’d lose out on constructive house sale and purchase strategies.
Meta Description:
Learn about the benefits of accessing pre-MLS listings in Ann Arbor to decide if you want to work with a realtor who offers this perk!
Keywords:
benefits of accessing pre-MLS listings in Ann Arbor
Originally published on: August 16, 2022 by Lily Katz and Sebastian Sandoval-Olascoaga from REDFIN. Original article here: https://www.redfin.com/news/home-purchases-fall-through-july-2022/
About 63,000 home-purchase agreements were called off in July, equal to 16% of homes that went under contract that month. That’s the highest rate in more than two years.
Nationwide, roughly 63,000 home-purchase agreements fell through in July, equal to 16.1% of homes that went under contract that month. That’s the highest percentage on record with the exception of March and April 2020, when the onset of the coronavirus pandemic brought the housing market to a near standstill. It’s up from a revised rate of 15% one month earlier and 12.5% one year earlier.
This is according to a Redfin analysis of MLS data going back through 2017. Please note that homes that fell out of contract during a given month didn’t necessarily go under contract the same month. For example, a home that fell out of contract in July could have gone under contract in June. This data is subject to revision.
The housing market is slowing as higher mortgage rates sideline many prospective homebuyers. With competition declining, the house hunters who are still in the market are enjoying newfound bargaining power—a stark contrast from last year, when they often had to pull out every stop in order to win. Today’s buyers are more likely to utilize contract contingencies that allow them to back out without financial penalty if something goes wrong. And with an increasing number of homes to choose from, they’re also more likely to call a deal off if a seller refuses to bring the price down or make requested repairs—a situation that has become increasingly common given that sellers are still adjusting to the cooling market.
“Homes are sitting on the market longer now, so buyers realize they have more options and more room to negotiate. They’re asking for repairs, concessions and contingencies, and if sellers say no, they’re backing out and moving on because they’re confident they can find something better,” said Heather Kruayai, a Redfin real estate agent in Jacksonville, FL. “Buyers are also skittish because they’re afraid a potential recession could cause home prices to drop. They don’t want to end up in a situation where they purchase a home and it’s worth $200,000 less in two years, so some are opting to wait in hopes of buying when prices are lower.”
Alexis Malin, another Redfin agent in Jacksonville, warns that there’s no guarantee buyers will be able to find better deals in the future. Annual home-price growth has started to slow—to 8% today from 17% a year ago—but prices are still on the rise and Redfin economists don’t expect them to crash.
“Some buyers who are backing out of deals have this mindset that the market is crashing and they’ll be able to get a home for $100,000 less in six months. That’s not necessarily the case,” she said. “Homes in many parts of Florida are still selling for a pretty penny, so I warn my buyers that the grass might not actually be greener on the other side.”
Some buyers may also be backing out due to 5%-plus mortgage rates. Those who started their search months ago, when rates were closer to 3%, may be realizing the type of home they wanted before is now out of budget since monthly mortgage payments have soared nearly 40% year over year.
“Home-purchase cancellations may begin to taper off as sellers get used to a slower-paced market,” said Redfin Deputy Chief Economist Taylor Marr. “Sellers have already begun to lower their prices after putting their homes on the market. They’ll likely start pricing their properties lower from the get-go and become increasingly open to negotiations.”
Jacksonville and Las Vegas Have Highest Rate of Home-Purchase Cancellations
In Jacksonville, roughly 800 home-purchase agreements were called off in July, equal to 29.3% of homes that went under contract that month. That’s the highest percentage among the 93 U.S. metropolitan areas Redfin analyzed. Next came Las Vegas (27.4%), Lakeland, FL (26.2%), New Orleans (25.9%), San Antonio (25%), Orlando, FL (24.5%), Palm Bay, FL (24.5%), Deltona, FL (24%), Atlanta (23.7%) and Pensacola, FL (23.6%). Metros must have had at least 1,000 pending home sales in July to be included. Scroll down for a table including data on all 93 metros.
Six of the top 10 metros are in Florida. Florida exploded in popularity among homebuyers during the pandemic, and has also seen among the highest price growth in the nation. That’s causing competition to slow, meaning more buyers are negotiating—and backing out if sellers aren’t giving them what they want. In Orlando, 37.4% of home offers written by Redfin agents faced competition in July, down from 81.4% a year earlier—the largest year-over-year decline among metros analyzed by Redfin.
“The last four buyers I’ve worked with have all backed out of deals,” Malin said. “One of my clients asked the seller for money to cover the home being repainted. The seller said no at first, so my buyer canceled the contract, but the seller then changed their mind and repainted the whole house. My buyer still walked away because he decided he didn’t love the home that much after all and he knew he had other options.”
Malin continued: “Another one of my buyers recently backed out of a deal because the home needed a new roof and the listing agent said they weren’t sure that was possible. My buyer didn’t want to deal with the trouble and decided they preferred a move-in ready home.”
Kruayai, the other Jacksonville agent, advises her sellers to make sure their homes are in tip-top condition and stand out from the crowd given the increased likelihood of buyers backing out. That means fixing missing shingles, faulty electrical boxes and other issues buyers might catch, and being open to negotiations.
Newark, NJ had the lowest rate of deal cancellations. About 75 home-purchase agreements fell through in July, equal to 2.7% of homes that went under contract that month. It was followed by Omaha, NE (4.9%), Nassau County, NY (5.9%), Rochester, NY (6.9%) and New York, NY (7.1%).
Metro-Level Summary: July 2022
The table below measures pending sales that fell out of contract as a percentage of overall pending sales, and is sorted from highest to lowest. A metro must have had at least 1,000 pending home sales in July 2022 to be included. Search:
U.S. Metro Area
Pending Sales that Fell Out of Contract, as % of Overall Pending Sales
Note from Middy: This headline is deceiving. I believe, from my experience in the field, the buyers were buying quickly and forcibly, then second guessed their decision, as the dust cleared. It felt like, and was, panic buying, and they backed out of the contracts before the inspection period was over. This happened more than we have ever seen it happen, but the buyers were offering everything but their first born and finding themselves very exposed, and with that it was understandable that this would be the outcome.
A home that isn’t seen is a home that isn’t sold. Real estate marketing really boils down to that key point. When selling your home, you need to make sure that you’re putting your property in front of as many potential buyers as possible.
Once you have their attention, your home will sell itself. We at The Arbor Move Team want to give you the 9 rules for marketing well and selling your property in a way that is guaranteed to draw potential buyers from all over the country!
-Rule 1: Make sure there are no dead trees or shrubs on any of your lawns – this could be considered hazardous by prospective homeowners if they’re not aware beforehand, so make an effort to clear them out before someone decides too late about purchasing it. Rule 2: Mowing can sometimes seem like such a hassle but don’t let laziness get in the way; taking care of these things now means fewer headaches later down the road both financially and physically when mowing season rolls
1. Online Presence
The more eyes, the faster the sale. Gone are the days where simply sticking a For Sale sign in your yard sells you home. The internet is an incredible tool that has been used by millions of people to make their homes seen and sold all across America! Listing your property on MLS listings and marketing sites will go a long way for getting it noticed quickly- if not immediately purchased from online buyers who can’t even get enough time nor space to see everything they want during house hunting excursions around town with agents due to lack of time or availability. Reputable listing agent’s should have effective and well thought out websites which make browsing through properties easy as pie – making them essential tools for finding new places, just like Zillow Reputable listing agents should have an effective and well-thought out strategy for this, as well.
2. The Price Is Right (Or Is It?)
You may feel like your home is worth a lot, but you should never let that stop you from pricing it competitively. Buyers will find out if they would be overpaying as soon as they look for other homes in the area and see how much their prices are compared to others’. If yours isn’t priced well enough then there’s no need looking any further!
Pricing too low cuts into your bottom line, so be sure to do research before you set your price. It needs to be justifiable and an excellent “hook”.
3. Photos, Photos, and a Lot More Photos
The buyer wants to know as much about your home (inside especially) before they commit. The exterior is only a small part of the entire package and taking photos isn’t going to sell it.
The real estate agency says that not showing buyers how beautiful or useful something will render them less interested in buying property because there are so many other homes out there on the market for sale, which have more pictures than yours does! Take heed their warning- you risk losing potential clients if you don’t provide ample information through images!
Nowadays buyers are as short on time as you are, so they’ll resist any temptation to waste it. Consider professional photography as well and put that low-quality phone photo away.
4. Virtual Tours
The power of a video is undeniable. It can make those virtual tours come alive and give the buyer that sense that they’re really there in your home, exploring every inch without ever leaving their living room couch! Videos are so engaging and immersive because you get to see more than just photos from one angle – this way buyers feel like it’s them who have found the perfect new place for themselves or family members.
5. Print Advertising Isn’t Dead (Yet)
In the spirit of using every possible outlet to market your home, place a search for local print publications. There are several free papers (typically) that go out locally wherein you pay a small fee and they list a picture with brief description. You’d be surprised how many prospective buyers still head directly to their favorite neighborhood grocery store or convenience store in order to browse through them!
6. Direct Mail
Technology has changed the way people read and obtain information, but it also means we have to get creative. It is rare that someone will go online everyday or head to a local store for their favorite magazine; they’ll check their mailbox instead! When you do this at home, your house can be right in their hands – literally. To make sure you’re on top of things with direct mail campaigns, research options like those available from USPS Media Mail service .
7. Signage
A For Sale sign is one of the most important things to have when selling a home. Some buyers are just more traditional in their approach and choose to drive around looking for homes that are on sale. Having an attractive, well-kept “For Sale” sign will also get people’s attention who might be there visiting friends but want some fresh air or exercise with something new like checking out potential houses they may buy later down the line!
8. Curb Appeal
When a buyer looks up from the For Sale sign in front of your home, they see an attractive and inviting abode. It’s important to keep your house presentable for potential buyers at all times- you never know who is driving by on their way somewhere else or maybe just out for a quick “peek behind” before continuing down the road.
9. Open House
Following the previous 8 rules will hopefully begin to lead to an influx of buyer interest and more importantly, home showings. Be sure you have the right agent on your side that can show you how to stage your home for the individual viewings and to also assist you with pulling together an Open House. This allows several prospects to view the home and ask any questions they may have. Make this emotional in a good way. Light fragrance candles and play some relaxing music.
From “For Sale” To “Sold”
Following these 8 steps will hopefully lead you to a more plentiful of buyers and home showings. Be sure that the right agent is on your side, one who can help stage your house for individual viewings as well as pulling together an Open House where many prospects can see it at once. The benefits are two-fold: with so many people seeing it all in one place you get more questions answered than during just 1 showing, but also if someone likes what they see there’s always time to negotiate after everyone has gone!
