Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Cocoa Beach Real Estate

We are going in a slightly different direction with our blog.  We are in the middle of building a new web site which is still www.cocoabeachcentral.com .  It is almost completed so check in ever now and then.

I was on a listing appointment the other day and it amazed me how little the previous agent had explained the agreement to the seller.  We will continue to update on the complexes but we feel the more you know about the Real Estate business the better for us since you will have no surprises at the closing table.  Our first session will be on the listing agreement.

Some of the more flexible items are as follows;

Personal property;  be sure and indicate what you are removing from the property.  For example if you are removing or changing a chandelier or appliance disclose this up front.  You don't want a mad buyer when they do the walk through.

Price;  Pay attention to the CMA that your agent should give you.  If you list high then you only want to make a couple of reductions to get to market value.  Don't appear desperate to sell unless you are desperate.

Financing;  There are only a few condo association that are FHA approved so that eliminates FHA and VA for most condos.  All options are still available for single family homes.  Most condo puchases will require 25% down payment.

Showing;  If at all possible use an electronic lock box,  the listing company can call and make appointments but the ELB allows the list agent to see who has showed the unit.  The easier the showing the better since believe it or not there are some lazy agents out there.

Compensation;  commission is always negotiable but get your money's worth.  Some companies keep more inside their company than pay out, in the end that hurts the seller.  Call the listing office on a weekend to see if the office is open, don't miss showings.

Termination;  We charge no cancellation fee, if we are not doing our best you should be able to fire us with no penalty.   Some companies charge a fee to cancel.

Escrow;  If a buyer cancels on a whim with no reason then they put their deposit at risk.  We can file paperwork to FREC and try to claim the deposit for our sellers.  We keep 25% of monies if we get a judgement for the seller, some companies charge 50%.

And now you know the rest of the story.

Stay tuned.

Jim Bagwell