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