Cambrian Open Home Notes
Here I am at my new listing in Cambrian. It’s Sunday, 13 minutes in thus far, and I haven’t had one person in yet. I am confident that it will be as busy, if not busier than yesterday. I had 18 interested groups through to tour the home yesterday!! A good open house would be 5-7 groups, so that was smoking! I was able to answer a lot of questions of interested buyers that were touring the home. Since I had a lot of good questions, I thought I might repeat and answer them again for my online readers.
Let’s first give a little background on this HOME:
1790 Oakwood Avenue, San Jose CA 95124
This is our 4th day on the market. We are priced at $549,000. We are a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom, 1500 square foot home with a 6930 square foot lot. Great schools — Satorette Charter Elementary (API 898), Price Charter Middle (API 864), and Branham High (781). We are very close to Target, 24 Hour Fitness, Home Depot, Starbucks, etc. The home has some quality upgrades: both bathrooms have been remodeled, crown molding, double paned windows, plantation shutters, granite countertops, hardwood floors, closet organizers and insulated walls. The home is across the street from Butcher Park which is not associated with a school, but does have a lot of soccer games on the weekend which makes for congested streets on Saturdays and Sundays. So, there is the broad overview on the house — great location, great schools, great house!
The type of sale is a short sale, which is where most of the buyer-questions were centered:
“We have FHA financing, will there be a problem obtaining financing on this house?”
“No. you should not have a problem getting this house approved through FHA financing. FHA lenders are concerned with the safety of the home. Before an FHA loan can fund, the appraiser is charged with also inspecting the safety of the home. If there are items like: unsafe structures, exposed electrical, leaking plumbing, etc., these items need to be cured before escrow can close on an FHA loan. To give an example, I was representing a buyer on a purchase and we had to replace a couple of outlet plates and also paint the back deck before we could fund the loan.”
“With the short sale, how long will it take to get approved?”
“The lender will most likely render a decision before 4 months and we will most likely be able to close between 4-6 months. We have 2 loans on the property, so it may be more towards the 6 month marker”
“What happens if we put an offer in and get acceptance by the seller and then we decide to cancel the contract? Can we do that without being charged by the bank or the realtor?
“Yes! You have not removed your contingencies yet, you can cancel the contract. What’s more, if the lender approves the sale at a higher purchase price than what you offered, you can cancel the contract.”
“When do we do our inspections? When do we put our deposit money in?”
“All of the time periods of the contract will start when we receive written confirmation that the lender or lenders have approved the short sale and all parties agree on the terms laid out by the seller. At that point the contract timelines start and the buyer will have however many days negotiated in the contract (usually 17) to conduct their investigations (order inspections), obtain financing and make a final decision to purchase the property before removing contingencies.
“I don’t have a buyers agent, but I would like to put an offer in on the property. How would I do that? What is the cost of using a buyer’s agent?”
“Yes, you can put an offer in on this property and it is in your best interest to have a Realtor draw up your offer on the CAR contract. There is no cost to employ a Realtor to assist you to make an offer. The buyer’s agent’s commission is paid by the Seller (in this case all Real Estate commissions are paid by the lender). It is in the best interest of a buyer to use the services of an agent because only 15% of homes on the market are held open. Therefore, you would be limiting yourself — especially in regards to short sales and bank owned properties. I would be happy to help you with that!”
Well, now we are 33 minutes 56 minutes in and I am surprised that not one person has come through yet! only 1 group has come through!! Usually Sundays are much busier than Saturdays 
What’s going on?? I don’t want to be here too long by myself or else I’ll end up eating all of these cookies and pumpkin bread!!
Yummy Goodies For A Fall Open Home
