I want a friend who’s Real Estate License has expired to represent me as an agent, but no Realtors are willing to help me find a home? What is going on?

Hi Jean,

Thanks for the question.

So to answer your question. You want a Realtor® to search the market for a suitable home, Make appointments, provide you with current data and advise you on the market and what you should pay for a home, write the contract and have your friend receive the commission?

First of all your friend can not receive commission from a real estate transaction because he/she are not licensed. If they have an interest in participating in real estate transactions such as yours here is my advice:

You should suggest to your friend that they reinstate their license. Then they would be able to refer you to a licenses, practicing Realtor® and ask for a referral fee. That way your friend generates some funds for referring his excellent client and the Realtor® actually doing the work and assuming all of the responsibility and liabilities, that go with that work, gets paid for their service to you. A win win situation for everyone.

Please feel free to give me a call if you need more info.

Regards,

Bob Kenney, Realtor®

Mobile/Text: 512-922-4922

I am not sure the home in Houston is the right home for us. We are supposed to sign contract tomorrow. What do I do?

Hi Eva,

Not sure of the whole story but in Texas you have most likely negotiated a Termination option on page 8, section 23 of your contract. This option gives you the UNRESTRICTED right to terminate the contract by giving written notice with in the # of days negotiated after the effective date.

So you you and your partner go under contract and you decide you don’t like something about the home you can terminate the contract and let the seller keep the $$$ you paid for the option. This includes anything from structural to cosmetics to just the way the sky looks in the evening. You do not need an excuse.

Talk with your real estate agent, Realtor® but this option period is on every contract for resale homes in state of Texas. New home contracts are different but talk with the sales rep at if new home and make sure you get in writing any option period they provide after signing an intent to purchase. It is not always called the same thing but most builders do have a period of time after signing that they will release you from your obligation.

I hope it all works out for you in the end. I know it can be a stressful process but every real estate search has a situation behind it that started the process and sometimes it is good to go back and remember that reason and see if the goals are being met with each decision that is made.

Let me know if I can assist any further. Please feel free to call or text : 512-922-4922

Bob Kenney, Realtor®

Reilly Realtors

HELP! My husband and I have our home under contract to close in March. How do we calculate our property tax obligation?

Hi Sue,

Hopefully your title company or closing attorney will verify this for you. I suggest you contact them 1^st thing in the morning.

To calculate your property tax obligation. Take the appraised value in the last tax year (2013) divide the number by 365 then multiply by the number of days in the year you own the home for example with a closing of March 17, 2014:

Taxes based on tax authority appraisal value : $10,000

$10,000/365 = $27.40 daily tax rate

$27.40 * 76 Days (include the closing day) = $2082.40

So this is the amount you will credit buyers at closing so that when the taxes are due the 3 of days you owned the home in 2014 is taken into account. Most closings will also have a document that both buyer and seller sign that is basically an outside agreement that if there is an underpayment of taxes at closing the sellers agree to reimburse the difference to the buyers. Same if there is an overpayment of taxes at closing the buyers will refund the sellers.

In order to make this happen both buyer and seller are responsible for contacting the other party with an accounting of actual taxes based on new tax appraisals since most taxing authorities do not typically set tax rates until fall time frame.

I hope this information helps you in your planning. If you have any other questions or need assistance in a referral for Realtor® services for your next home please contact me!

Kind Regards,

Bob Kenney, Realtor®

Reilly Realtors

Mobile/Text : 512-922-4922

What does a Real Estate agent do once a home gets listed? I have an agent selling my home and I don’t hear from her on a regular basis. This is the first time I have sold a home.

Hi Anna,

While I don’t know the particulars of your situation I can give you a brief descriptions of all the things going on behind the scenes of getting a home ready for listing.

Weeks before a listing there is an initial walk through of the home by you and your Realtor®. This would give your real estate agent the opportunity to familiarize themselves with your property, take notes for the listing information (types of appliances, gas or electric services, counter top type, general condition etc,) Your agent will also use this opportunity to get an idea about general condition of homes and how it compares to other homes either active on market or recently sold in the area. This will help them prepare the CMA (comparative market analysis) that they will present and go over with you as a guide to pricing your home for the market.

Also at that time you should be discussing what you, homeowner, may want to do to get the home in showing condition. This is sometimes a touchy subject with homeowners because we (home owners in general) are proud of our homes, as we should be. In the vast majority of cases homes are where we live. Depending on family makeup day to day living is not as it is always portrayed on TV shows and in movies.

On any given day I know exactly what someone walking into my home may face. Kids cloths in strange places, dishes in places that no one remembers eating at, things stuffed into couch pillows, napkins that the dog got a hold of and has torn apart. As you all know the list can go on and on. This is what a welled live in home sees every day.

Now comes time for listing a home. If your real estate agent does not have the knack they may bring in a professional “stagger” to assist. The idea is simple make the homes first impression to prospective buyers pop. They might suggest removing “Clutter” from a room This is a catch all phrase – Too many pieces of furniture that may be cluttering a room to the 50 nick knacks on the book cases that hold personal value and memories to you and your family. Every room in a typical home has clutter typically so don’t be offended with these suggestions and by all means every suggestion does not have to be acted on.

You have always heard “remove all personal photos”. In some homes there are walls of family photos from years of traveling and events. These photos are meant to remind the homeowner of all of these wonderful times but to a prospective buyer coming through the home they are a distraction. You don’t want them concentrating on your vacations because then they are not going to remember the home. This is my opinion why your photos need to be removed and stored for your next home. Yikes once you take down the photos you may have faded walls where the photos are, would suggest a quick coat of paint over that wall.

So we go room to room and make suggestions,, rearrange furniture, maybe remove some pieces to make rooms bigger, check out conditions of carpets and floors. Caulking around Bath tubs, weather stripping on doors, missing lights (or ones that don’t work) walk around outside looking for things a buyer might see. Wood rot at window sills, exterior caulking that is deterioration, missing shingles, overgrown bushes, trees that may need to be trimmed. As you can see there is potentially a lot of work that may need to be done.

Once you can get a list together it is easy to go through and estimate costs, see what you the homeowner can do on your own etc. A lot of the things are just deferred maintenance that we all get too busy to do at times.

Personally I have for clients, power washed decks/drives, cleaned windows, landscaped whenever I think I can lend a had to the appearance of a home. We do this so that the property makes a good 1^st impression. And we all know that 1^st impressions are very important.

Then the photo session! So since there are so many people starting their search on line your photos have a lot to do whether a potential client wants to see your home or not. We have all been on line looking at something, Houses, cars, cloths, jewelry and you know there are just some photos that don’t make things appealing. The agent in most cases will hire a professional photographer to come in and shoot your home. Most people cant believe it is there home when they see it presented on line but all of the weeks of hard work will now be rewarded.

OK next is the paperwork setting terms of the listing, how to handle showings (appointment with realtor/homeowner) call 1^st then go, how to handle comments by other agents/buyers, homeowner filling out a complete sellers disclosure. The key here is DISCLOSURE, DISCLOSURE. Disclose any issues you are aware of old or new.

So after all this the home goes into MLS or your locale way of listing a home. Sign may or may not go up and the showings start. Your realtor will then be requesting feed back from those who are showing your home (usually asking the other realtors for feedback of theirs and their clients). Some clients want to see every comment on the property regardless if pro or con. Some clients just want to know if they are going to make an offer. I had one client say don’t “never show me negative comments I am not doing any more work!” So it all depends on how it was discussed during the previous strategy sessions over the weeks coming up to listing.

Also during all of this there most likely is a separate marketing campaign going on that you don’t always see. Today there is a lot of online buyer looking for property so agents are busy posting your home for sale on any various sites. There is no one set way of market strategy most agents have had success in many different ways and they do what they think best for a property by property basis. There is also online and personal networking with other agents in your area. All of these things in combination of a local listing service are very minimal actions your agent is taking behind the scenes. Of course there are ads that may be appropriate for locale or regional publication that need customizing and have deadlines so the main story here is there are lots of things going on behind the scenes.

I am not sure what is going on with your case Anna, every situation is different, but this outline above catches about 80% of the tasks required (I am sure I missed a few minor tasks that are automatically done) to successfully get a home listed and presented to the marketplace. I am sure other Realtors® reading this will have slightly different processes or maybe some follow similar process but the end result is getting your home presented to the market and making the best 1^st impression possible.

There is nothing like the feeling that a homeowner/Realtor® experience when a buyer comes to your home because they liked what they saw on line. Stays at your home for an hour or more and writes you an offer.

I wish you luck in the sale of your home. I would suggest if you have not heard from your agent that you call them and ask them if they could communicate any activity, comments (good or bad) and let them know you need a little more involvement in the process.

If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact me

Mobile/Text: 512-922-4922

Regards

Bob Kenney, Realtor®

Do Open Houses really work to sell my home?

Thanks for the Email Jack,

There are a couple of different schools about Open Houses

A) While the additional exposure can not hurt the marketing of a home. A large percentage of the time the Open Houses benefit the Realtor® holding the home open to the public.

The agent has a chance to interact with the people coming through the doors and if this is not the right home than maybe they can help them find another one that would be a better fit.

B) Open houses are a great for the exposure of the home in any kind of market.

So you have agents that are looking for the opportunity top “pick up buyers” and agents who believe in exposing the home to as many individuals as possible hoping to generate interest in your home.

In my experience a buyer walks into an open house blind maybe less than 5% of the time. I believe open houses are a win win for the homeowner and the agent as it helps expose the property to a market (people that love to go to open houses) and to neighbors that may have friends or family wanting to move into the area.

It really comes down to the homeowner and how they feel about open houses. I have had clients prefer not to open their homes up to the public. Trouble of getting the home in “showing condition” worry about personal property etc.. I think it is a marketing tool that has to be discussed before you list the home so that everyone’s expectations are set before the home gets to market.

So to recap – Yest it can be helpful to have open houses, especially at the beginning of a listing, but it depends on homeowners feelings about preparing and opening their home to the public.

Have the discussion up front with your Realtor® They will know the locale market and how important/unimportant it may be from a locale market perspective.

Good luck with the sale of your home Jack.

Bob Kenney, Realtor®

Reilly Realtors

Mobile/text: 512-922-4922

 

 

 

 

 

I have a home that is under contract to be sold and it was broken into last night! will this affect the sale of the home?

I know a real estate agent that is inquiring about what they should do about a vacant listing that is under contract that got broken into and is scheduled to close in 10 days.

First time she has encountered this and was not sure if it was going to make the sale questionable.

OK if I was in the situation 1^st thing I would do is contact the seller and advise them of the situation. Have them contact police and file a report then contact their insurance company to report the break in and request they send an adjuster to the property.

In this case the seller canceled his homeowners insurance when they moved out! Please never cancel coverage on a property you own till the property has closed! This is just one of many scenarios that could happen to a home while it is under contract and having coverage on the property for incidents such as this case or in the case of one of my clients where there was a severe water leak from water heater that resulted in $50,000 damage.

In all these scenarios there is one golden rule. Inform and disclose all issues to all parties as soon as possible. In Texas there is a clause dealing with property condition at time of sale. In the case of the break in the seller has the right to repair the damage to the same or better condition that it was in at the time the contract was effective.

There are all kinds of things that can happen to people and property during a sales contract. 1^st thing all the parties involved in the transaction have to remember is that most issues can be resolved as long as everyone is involved in the facts and have access to any information about the incident.

So 2 important lessons

A) Never cancel insurance on a property till the property closes. Talk to your insurance company explain facts. If you move out prior to sale you may be able to adjust the coverage on the home to cover structure but may not need the personal property coverage anymore. Take an experts advice!

B) disclose, disclose, disclose – honesty and a clear representation of the facts are the best remedy for all issues that may arise during a sales contract.

Regards,

Bob Kenney, Realtor®

Mobile/Text: 512-922-4922

Home market status? What all the abbreviations mean..

Jeff from Fresno asked: What does Pending taking back up mean?? I am from California and not familiar with the term.

Great Question Jeff, All over the country there are different terms used in real estate transactions. I will try and out line the major ones here.

Texas area status abbreviations and definitions

A = Active – A property is active and a seller wants to sell

AC = Active contingent – A property has an accepted offer however the property is contingent on the sale of another property by the buyer.

PB = Pending taking back up – A property has an accepted and executed contract in place but there are option periods that the buyer has negotiated and the seller has reserved the right to accept back up offers on the property. Once another offer is accepted the seller notifies the buyer in position A that a back up offer has been accepted on the property.

P = Pending – After all option periods expire and the contract is still in place this status change just lets the market know that the contract is proceeding to a closing.

S = Sold – The transaction has closed and funded.

W = Withdrawn – Property has been with drawn by the seller from MLS

X = Expired – Listing contract has expired and the property is not being actively marketed on MLS

T = Temporarily withdrawn – seller has asked that the property be removed from active ststus but intends to resume marketing at some point in the future.

L = Leased – A property has been leased for a contracted period of time.

Some markets will have variations of these statuses. In California they refer to a contract as being under “Escrow” that means the funds are with tht title company or attorneys in an escrow account to be distributed on the closing date of the contract. In Texas we use title companies to transact 95% of the residential transactions. They set up escrows for each individual property as well we just do not use it in our language.

In Massachusetts and some of the New England states. Real estate transactions are closed with attorney offices that do the title work and sellers and buyers go to the attorney's offices to sign the paper work.

I hope this answers some of your questions Jeff. Please feel free to contact me directly if you need more information.

Bob Kenney, Realtor ®

Mobile/Text - 512-922-4922

Contingency offers: Good or Bad?

Most agents selling real estate in the last 10 years has received a “contingent on the sale of other property” contract at one point or another. Is it good or bad for your seller client?

Like everything else in a negotiation it just depends on what the property being sold is, How it is priced compared to the market conditions and the terms that are offering.

FACT – The majority of consumers looking to buy a new home will need to sell an existing property to access equity and reduce Loan to Value ratios in order to qualify for a new mortgage. Of course there are exceptions to that statement. Buyers with Cash, someone who may own an existing property outright but most people will need to sell one home to buy another.

So it all comes down to TIMIMG

I urge my clients to look at the offer they receive 1^st and once they address any terms that need addressing but before there is a response, then look at the contingent property.

This requires a little more cooperation from the buyer and his/her agent. Once a consumer has found a home they want to buy they tend to get pretty serious about getting their property sold. If the property is one the market and they have an offer that is past the option periods then it is still considered contingent but it is a little stronger than maybe something that is not on the market, not ready for the market and is going to be priced too high for quick contract.

Each situation is unique and I think contingency offers need to weighed just as seriously as non contingent offers. Is there risk for a seller to take a contingent offer? Yes. What if the contingent home does not close on time? You would have signaled to the market that you have a contract on the property but a contingency and it may be dismissed by some other potential buyers. Are there benefits for the seller ? Yes typically you can be a little firmer on price that with someone who may think they can discount you property if paying cash or other favorable terms.

So I would always suggest that the offer be considered as serious as any other offer and treat it was much respect. In 13 years as an Agent I have had only 1 Continent deal fall through and it was a client who was not very honest about the sale of their property. Other than that I have concluded several contingent contracts successfully and when a buyer is in that position I have learned that the presentation of the offer, terms and status of their home sale if handled correctly can be a positive for the selling client.

Let me know if you have any questions.  I appreciate your referrals!!

Send questions to Mobile/Text: 512-922-4922

Regards,

Bob Kenney, Realtor®

Texas Homestead Exemption Application

If  you have purchased a home in Texas in 2013 as a primary residence you are eligible to apply for what is called a “Homestead Exemption” after January 1, 2014.

There are several companies who will advertise to you that they can file this application for you for a fee. Do not pay the fee. There is no charge for this application it is free!

The county in which you reside will have the forms available to you as a PDF (in most cases) print it out fill In the information and send it to the address on the form.

Travis County link is here: http://www.traviscad.org/pdf/Forms/Exemptions/50-114_Homestead%20Exemption%20Form.pdf

Hays County link is here : http://www.hayscad.com/forms/

Williamson County link is here http://www.wcad.org/Appraisal/PublicAccess/Forms/PublicServices/HomesteadExemptionApplication.pdf

Also here is a copy of a blank form – Whatever county you live in simply fill in the tax appraisal district information and follow instructions. You can find mailing address on your locale appraisal district web site: http://www.window.state.tx.us/taxinfo/taxforms/50-114.pdf

What is a Homestead Exemption:*window on state goverment http://www.window.state.tx.us/taxinfo/proptax/tx96_295/home.html

Savings on Home Taxes   

An exemption removes part of the value of your property from taxation and lowers your taxes. For example, if your home is valued at $50,000 and you qualify for a $15,000 exemption, you pay taxes on your home as if it was worth only $35,000. Other than exemptions for disabled veterans or survivors, these exemptions apply only for your homestead. They do not apply to other property you own.

Does your home qualify for exemptions?

You must own your home.

To qualify for a general or disabled homestead exemption, you must own your home on January 1. If you are 65 years of age or older, you need not own your home on January 1. You will qualify for the over-65 exemption as soon as you turn 65, own the home, and live in it as your principal residence.

Your homestead can be a separate structure, condominium, or a mobile home located on leased land, as long as you own it. Your homestead can include up to 20 acres if the land is used as your yard.

A residence may be owned by an individual through an interest in a qualifying beneficial trust and may be occupied by a trustor of a qualifying trust.

If you are not the sole owner of the home, you will receive only a portion of any qualified exemption, based on your percent of ownership. For example, you own a 25-percent interest in a homestead valued at $100,000, for a total value of $25,000. You will receive 25 percent of a $15,000 school homestead exemption, or $3,750.

You must use the home as your principal residence on January 1.

If you have more than one house, you can only get exemptions for your main or principal residence. You must live in this home on January 1.

If you temporarily move away from your home, you can still get an exemption if you don't establish another principal residence and you intend to return. For instance, if you enter a nursing home, your home still qualifies as your homestead if you intend to return.

Renting part of your home or using part of it for a business doesn't disqualify the rest of your home for the exemption.

Note: Texas has two distinct laws for designating a homestead. The Texas Tax Code offers homeowners a way to apply for homestead exemptions to reduce local property taxes. The Texas Property Code allows homeowners to designate their homesteads to protect them from a forced sale to satisfy creditors. This law does not protect homeowners from tax foreclosure sales of their homes for delinquent taxes.

So get your applications in and don't be fooled by the offers to make application on your behalf.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Regards,

Bob Kenney, Realtor®

VP Turnquist Partners Realtors

Mobile/Text: 512-922-4922

What is a CMA? Who do I ask for more information about pricing my home?

Hi Frank,

If you were in Austin Texas,  I would tell you to give me a call!

CMA stands for Comparative Market Analysis. There are a couple of avenues you can go to obtain a CMA based on available data in your area.

The most obvious is your trusted Realtor. Realtors as professionals belong to locale organizations that compile market data in your area. From this data a Realtor can pull together a comparative analysis of current properties on the market, Number of days on the market, number of homes pending waiting to be closed and number of home closed or sold.

Some people are surprised when they receive their CMA and a home 5 door’s away is not on the analysis’. I try to include close proximity homes in the comments section of the report but do not always use them for comparison. Why? When doing these analysis it is important to have as many features between your home (target home) and the comps (comparative) homes.

The CMA helps give the consumer a clear picture of what the value of his/her home is at a given time in the market. I try to stay as close to what an appraiser is going to be looking at the time the home is sold so there are not any surprises when the finale appraisal comes in for the new buyer. Appraisers try to keep sold comps to w/in 90 days of the appraisal but sometimes may have to go back further depending on activity in your area. It is not un-common to have some areas that do not have close by comps.

So SQFT, Location, age of home, construction, lot size and schools are the main things to begin an analysis’. From there you want to try to keep sold comps to w/in 3 months or 90 days. So I usually start with a SQFT range of 200 SQFT on either side of target property, Range in home age and I plug in elementary, middle and high school campuses and see what activity there is. I might add 30-60 days onto the sold’s if there are not enough comps.  Once I get a selection of listings I then start to analyze each listing and see how they compare to target. # of stories will have an effect, lot size, amenities etc.

Once the listings are narrowed down for active I repeat same for any Pending listings and sold listings. Most Realtors have a presentation method that is unique to them. I like to show the client the average, minimum and max values for the final selection. This will help guide the client as to how to price their home and help manage expectations on expected final sale price range.

If an area does not have a lot of comparables then the Realtor must expand the search area until they are able to come up with more listings to use in the analysis. This becomes a little more complicated because you then take into consideration what another community might have to offer then start making adjustments in comparison to the target property criteria (either up or down).

A second alternative to the Realtor is to hire a locale licensed appraiser to come in and do an appraisal in their format using their set criteria. Their analysis is sometime more subjective depending on the market data they have access to. In a lot of cases it may be the same source as the Realtor but they may also use other resources outside the locale real estate data base.

Whatever route you go you can see that this report entails quite a bit of work to make sure you get an accurate picture. Once you receive the CMA and go over it with your Realtor it is perfectly acceptable to ask questions, point out areas where you think the Realtor may have missed a property ( It is not uncommon for a client to have more direct knowledge about a neighbors recent sale) and let the realtor make adjustments accordingly. The whole purpose of the CMA is to assist you the client in determining the best list price and help determine expectations of selling price.

I would be privileged to help refer you to an experienced Realtor/Broker in your area. Please feel free to contact me by Text/Phone @ 512-922-4922 or Email rkenney@gmail.com

A happy safe and healthy new year to you all!

Regards

Bob Kenney, Realtor

Vice President, Turnquist Partners Realtors