Menlo Park Ca: the Perils of Non contingent Offers For Sellers

In this crazy market of homes getting five, ten, fifteen, even twenty offers, everyone knows that buyers are taking a risk when they make a non contingent offer on a Menlo Park home. This means that the buyer is waiving all rights to inspect the house as well as any rights to back out of the offer on the Menlo Park home for sale if the bank turns down the request for a loan. A non contingent offer on a Menlo Park home also means that no matter what the home appraises for, the buyer agrees to make up the difference in cash.

Here is how it works.  The home is listed for $995,000. The winning offer is $1,300,000. The buyer is going to put 20% down or $$260,000 and get a loan for $1,040,000.  The buyer shows proof of funds of $350,000.

Now let's say the Menlo Park real estate agent representing the seller believes that the comps for the house proved the home was worth between $1,100,000 and $1,150,000 and is suggesting listing under a million to generate a lot of offers.

If the seller picked a great Menlo Park real estate agent then he or she should be very confident that an appraiser will also feel the home is worth $1,100,000 to $1,150,000. If the home appraises for $1,150,000 then the bank will loan 80% of that number or $920,000 and the buyer will need $380,000 for the down payment as well as money for closing costs and reserve requirements from the bank.

You can see from this example that the buyer of this Menlo Park home for sale is going to be in trouble. With only $350,000 in available cash the deal is not going to work.  This buyer has aspirations that do match with his/her wallet.

The consequence to the buyer is that the non contingent offer does not give him/her an out and the 3% deposit made with the offer is at risk of being forfeited. This is common knowledge, but what about the risk to the seller.

People rarely talk about the seller's risk in a transaction. Even in this hot Menlo Park seller's market the seller can be left in a bad situation if the first buyer can not perform. You may have a back up offer but that person may have already found another home or had a change of heart. The word will get around that the home only appraised for $1,150,000 and so getting $1,300,000 for your Mountain View home may be tough. Getting $1,250,000 at this point could be tough.  Also, you could potentially lose weeks of time which can disrupt the plans of a Menlo Park home seller, or put the house back on the market at a less favorable time.

The lesson to be learned here is that in looking at offers the highest may not be the best. Your Menlo Park Real Estate agent should help you analyze which potential buyer has the best chance of closing the deal the first time around.

If you have any questions about selling a home in Menlo Park please feel free to contact me.

Marcy Moyer

Keller Williams Realty Palo Alto

www.marcymoyer.com

marcy@marcymoyer.com

Cal BRE 01191194

650-619-9285

209 Market Place Menlo Park Ca Is Getting Ready For Market

As a Menlo Park Realtor I specialize in selling ugly duckling homes that are begging to turned into swans, like this upcoming listing at 209 Market Place in the Belle Haven neighborhood of Menlo Park. I have a team of experienced contractors who help me get the most increase a home's value for the least amount of money. I thought you might be interested in hearing about what we do.

In the case of this home in Belle Haven we had a house with a roof that was way beyond need of replacement, ugly laminate kitchen counters, old carpet over hardwood floors, a poorly painted interior, very old fashion red brick fire place, no landscaping, ugly kitchen cabinets, ugly bath vanity and fixtures, and ugly closet doors.

My contractor started work about a month ago. We tore out the old fashioned Home Depot kitchen counter and replaced it with a sleek new counter from Ikea that is still laminate, but looks great and only cost $150 for the material. The entire inside was painted a color called Sierra White which has a hint of grey in it, today's it color. The kitchen cabinets were painted a darker shade of grey called Malibu Beige and an incredibly dramatic slate backspash was added.

The bathroom got a new vanity in a dark chocolate color with vinyl tile squares, a beveled glass medicine cabinet, new light, and new towel bar, toilet paper holder set.

All three bedrooms got new beveled mirror closet doors.

The red brick fire place was panted with a chalk paint in the same grey as the kitchen cabinets.

The old carpet was removed and the original oak hardwood floors were re-finished and stained a dark color called spice.

A new roof was installed in a bright green color to match the newly painted front door and pale green house color.

Staging was done yesterday, and landscaping will happen today.

This Belle Haven ugly duckling home for sale is about to become a swan.

I will show you the finished results in a few days.

If you have any questions about buying or selling a home in Belle Haven please feel free to contact me.

Marcy Moyer

Keller Williams Realty 

http://www.marcymoyer.com

marcy@marcymoyer.com

Cal BRE 01191194

650-619-9285

Why You May Need To Put A New Roof When Selling A Menlo Park House

The market is hot in Menlo Park, inventory is down to almost nothing, homes get multiple offers, and Menlo Park home sellers are in the driver's seat. So Does this mean it is ok to just put a home on the market in any condition and you will get offers 20-30% over list price? Unfortunately not always. 

While it is true that there is a lot of cash out in the world, assuming that you will have multiple excellent cash offers to chose from when selling your Menlo Park home is not always the case. I recently listed a home that had 12 offers, and not one was all cash.

Very often cash offers are not the best offers. Many investors as well as end users feel if they are going to pay cash they want something back, that is a lower price.

A financed offer may be the best or sometimes only offer you get when selling your home in Menlo Park, so your home needs to get through the appraisal process as well as underwriting.  This means more than just being worth what the buyer offers. It also means that there can not be obvious health and safety issues.

So while an appraiser will not know if your bathroom shower pan is leaking, they do look at and take pictures of the house. If the roof on the Menlo Park home you are selling looks like this, a buyer will not get a loan. I once had a client who was buying a Bank of America foreclosure using Bank of America for their lender. The appraisal came back saying that Bank of America would not lend on the home that Bank of America owned because the roof needed replacing. We managed to get Bank of America to put a new roof on. If that can happen on a foreclosed home, if should happen on the Menlo Park home you are selling.

The basic concept here that unless the home you are selling in Menlo Park is really not livable it is best to appeal to as wide a group of people as possible. This means that the home must have a roof that looks like it will make it through a rain storm and not collapse in a little wind. It does not have to be new, but if it is obviously failing then it should be replaced before going on the market.

If you have any questions about selling a home in Menlo Park please feel free to contact me.

Marcy Moyer

Keller Williams Realty Palo Alto

www.marcymoyer.com

marcy@marcymoyer.com

Cal BRE 01191194

650-619-9285

Don't Pay For Termite Repairs on a Menlo Park Home In Escrow

As many of my blog followers know I sell a lot of Menlo Park homes in trust and probate. The owners were often very old, as are the homes, and frequently in need of repair. While it is often a good idea to keep repairs at a minimum in order to decrease the liability to the estate, sometimes it is necessary in order to allow buyers to be able buy and move into a home safely, or in order to increase the value exponentially.

I am currently sellling a Menlo Park home that needed some major bathroom repairs since it was unclear an adult could stand on the bathroom floor without falling through to the crawl space. No amount of staging was going to fix that problem. The second bathroom in this Menlo Park home was not much better.

The seller of this Menlo Park home decided to redo both bathrooms and Preferred Termite company was generous enough to allow the $15,000 payment through escrow. 

The house went on the market generating plenty of interest and multiple offers. The seller of this Menlo Park home chose a nice couple who were pre-approved for a loan and felt comfortable enough with the reports and repairs done by the seller that they waived the property condition contingency, knowing that there was still more work to be done on the termite report. They could use the new bathrooms and felt the rest of the termite work and replacing the roof could happen over time.

Unfortunately their lender did not agree. There was no problem with the appraisal or underwriting. However, one day before we were due to close the funder looked at the seller's HUD1 (final closing statement) and saw that there was a $15,000 payment going to Preferred Termite. They said that all work called for on the termite report, including providing more access to the crawl space by making a new opening, had to be done before funding the loan.

Lesson learned. Fortunately neither the seller of the Menlo Park home or the buyer were trying to meet a deadline so the buyer switched lenders, the Menlo Park home seller will pay the termite company out of escrow so it is not on the closing statement and we will close in 2-3 weeks.

So remember, when selling a Menlo Park home do not put payments for inspections or termite repairs in escrow or the buyer's lender may ask to see them and muck up the sale. 

If you have any questions about selling a home in Menlo Park please fell free to contact me.

Marcy Moyer

Keller Williams Realty Palo Alto

www.marcymoyer.com

marcy@marcymoyer.com

Cal BRE 01191194

650-619-9285

Why It Is A Great Idea To List Your Menlo park Home on Dec 26

I know what you are thinking, I am going to wait till after the first of the year or the spring to sell my Menlo Park home. It would be stupid to list a home during the holidays, no one does that. Or no one is looking for a home during the holidays. 


I need to respectfully disagree with those sentiments. I believe December is a great month to sell a home in Menlo Park, especially right after Christmas.
Here are the reasons I think selling  a Menlo Park home on Dec 26th this year is a great idea.
1. The inventory has never been lower. As of today there are only 30 homes for sale in Menlo Park. A buyer's market doesn't even happen until there are over 100 homes for sale. List this month and you will have almost no compettion.
2. There are many people who are planning on moving to Menlo Park who are using winter break to come and look for a home. When there are only 6 homes for sale it is not hard to see how much your home will be apprectiated.
3. If you list your home on Dec 26 or there abouts, you could get the out of towners who are here over vacation looking for homes. Kepp it on the market 2 weeks with an open house the first week in Jan and then take offers the following week. This way you can also get the locals who were out of town Christmas week.
4. Registration for Menlo Park schools start early in the year and many parents want to know where their children will be early in the year. This is even more important for those parents who want their children in the Spanish Immersion program.  Selling a Menlo Park home at the end of December would work perfectly for these families.
So in my opinion if you are ready to sell your home in Menlo Park then my sugestion is don't let a great opportunity pass you by. If you are ready to list in December, wait until after Christmas day, and then get it on the market. Your results will be very satisfying.
If you have any questions about selling a home in Menlpo Park please feel free to contact me.
Marcy Moyer
Keller Williams Realty Palo Alto
www.marcymoyer.com
marcy@marcymoyer.com
Cal BRE 01191194
650-619-9285

But The Seller Gave Me Three Days To Respond To Her Counter Offer On Her Menlo Park Home

Yesterday I wrote about a happy clause inthe CAR contract, today is a sad clause for my buyer. She wrote an offer and got a counter. The counter gave her 3 days to respond, so naturally she thought she was protected and that no one else could have an offer accepted during that time period on this Menlo Park home.

WRONG!

Paragraph 2 of the California Purchase Contract sayd that the seller has the right to market the property and accept any other offer during the time period that the counter offer is valid.  

So, while my client is hemming and hawing, and thinking very carefully about a five thousand dollar difference, someone else could make a higher offer and get the property. Every buyer must decide carefully about what they are willing and able to pay for a home, just as every seller needs to decide carefully and without pressure how much they are willing to accept for their home. But, the buyers must know that there is always a risk that they may lose out by taking their time and be ok with that. Same goes for the seller.  they should make the decision carefully, but must understand that during that time period the buyer may find a different home they like better.

If you have any questions about buying or selling a home in Santa Clara or San Mateo County please feel free to contact me.

Marcy Moyer

Keller Williams Realty

www.marcymoyer.com

marcy@marcymoyer.com

650-619-9285

D.R.E.  01191194

Marcy Moyer Keller Williams Realty Palo Alto, Ca. Specialist in Short Sales and Trust and Probate Sales