Tips and Traps When Selling a Home | Tips & Traps

Tips and Traps When Selling a Home

Authors: Robert Irwin

Published: December 2008

eISBN: 9780071508407 0071508406 | ISBN: 9780071508391

Contents

Chapter 1: 6 Steps to Selling Your Home Immediately

Step 1: Compare It

Step 2: Prep It

Step 3: Agentize It

Step 4: Promote It

Step 5: Incentivize It

Step 6: Price It to Market

The Bottom Line

Chapter 2 Tough Love on Pricing

What You Won’t Find in This Chapter

The Equity That Was

Your Equity Will Come Back!

What About . . . ?

Useful Pricing Terms

The Bottom Line

Chapter 3 Finding an Agent Who Will Work Hard for You

Where Can You Find a Good Agent?

Interview Prospective Agents

Should You Go with a Chain or an Independent Office?

Hire the Agent, Not the Office

Negotiating the Commission

Can You Get a Lower Commission?

Flat Fee MLS

Discount Brokers

What About Asking a Full-Service Agent to Take Less?

Why Are Real Estate Commissions So High?

Commission Splitting

Understanding the Listing Agreement

Exclusive Right-to-Sell

Exclusive Agency

Open Listing

Guaranteed-Sale Listing

Net Listing

Which Type of Listing Should You Give?

Do You Understand the Listing Agreement?

The Agent’s Responsibility

Buyer’s Agent versus Seller’s Agent

What Are Subagents?

What Are Dual Agents?

Which Type of Agent Do You Want?

Chapter 4: 14 Days to Shaping Up Your House for Sale

Day 1: Prepare the Front

Day 2: Paint the Front

Day 3: Paint the Trim

Day 4: Clean Outside

Day 5: Clean the Back and Sides

Day 6: Paint Inside, Especially the Kitchen

Day 7: Paint the Guest Bathroom

Day 8: Paint the Master Bathroom

Day 9: Paint (or Clean) the Entry and the Living Areas

Day 10: Paint (or Clean) the Bedrooms

Day 11: Wash the Windows

Day 12: Add Light

Day 13: Remove Furniture

Day 14: Clean Inside

Remember, First Impressions Count

After the 14-Day Shape-Up

What If Your Property Is a Real Dog?

Do You Have the Energy?

Chapter 5 What to Do If You’re “Underwater”

Understand the True Nature of Your Situation

What Can You Do?

Should You “Walk”?

Talk to Your Lender

Finding Someone to Talk To

What to Do When You Finally Meet a Loan Officer Face-to-Face

How Do You Pressure the Lender?

Your Ammunition

Another Alternative: Rent the Home Out

Chapter 6 How to Stop Foreclosure

1. Talk to Your Lender Immediately, Today, Right Now!

2. Consider a “Deed in Lieu of Foreclosure”

3. Look into Bankruptcy

4. Soldiers and Sailors Civil Relief Act (SSCRA)

5. Attack the Paperwork

6. Try Refinancing with a Private Lender

Always Protect Your Credit

Avoid the Mortgage Credit Trap

Chapter 7 Selling Faster “By Owner”

Can You Sell “By Owner” in Today’s Market?

Can You Really Do It?

Who Will Handle the Paperwork?

Do You Have the Time to Sell “By Owner”?

What If Potential Buyers Ask You About Financing?

What About Marketing?

Flat Fee MLS

Listing Online

Flyers

Newspaper Ads

Get a Good Sign

What About Showing the Property?

Have a Guest Book

Will You Need to “Open Escrow”?

Should You Really Do It?

Chapter 8 The Lease Option Option

What Is a Lease Option?

Why Would the Buyer Want a Lease Option?

Why Would You Want to Give a Lease Option?

Are There Any Problems with the Lease Option?

How to Help Protect Yourself in a Lease Option

If You Have the Property Listed, Do You Still Owe a Commission?

Should You Try It?

Chapter 9 Finding Buyers by Offering Creative Financing

Why Finance It Yourself?

What Is Seller Financing?

Reasons Buyers Want You to Carry the Financing

Cash Rules

Be Wary of Speculators

The Sellers Who Outsmart the Bad Buyers

The Sellers Who Convert Paper into Cash

What Makes a Second Mortgage Salable?

What About Balloon Payments?

Checklist for Seller Financing

Chapter 10 Extreme Selling

Range Pricing

Contests

Auctions

Incentives

Neighborhood Open Homes

The Bottom Line

Chapter 11 Converting to a Rental and Holding On for Better Times

How It’s Done

But What If You Need the Money from a Sale to Buy Your Next House?

How Much Can You Rent Your Home For?

Do You Have a Landlord’s Temperament?

How to Successfully Handle a Rental

Chapter 12 Special Help for Selling Condos and Co-ops

Can You Put Up a Sign That Can Be Seen?

How Do You Arrange for Showing?

Do You Have Your CC&Rs and Bylaws Available?

Will Your Co-op Board Approve?

Will the Architectural Committee Allow Any Changes to the Unit Buyers May Want?

Can Buyers Find Your Unit?

Can You Overcome Dark Corners?

Are There Lawsuits?

Do You Have Congenial Neighbors?

Do the Buyers Understand the Lifestyle?

Can You Help with the Financing?

Can You Help with the Marketing?

Chapter 13 Successful Negotiating in Any Market

The Counteroffer

What Do You Want?

There’s a Right Way to Receive an Offer

How Do You Tell a Good Offer from a Bad One?

How Do You Handle Contingency Clauses?

Limiting the Contingency Clauses

How Do You Make a Counteroffer?

Counter When You Must

What Should You Counter On?

Countering the Price

Countering the Terms

Countering the Occupancy

Countering on the Contingencies

Specify How a Contingency Is to Be Removed

What If the Buyers Walk?

How Do You Accept?

Always Keep Copies

Chapter 14 Dealing with a Bad Inspection Report

Why Let the Buyers Have an Inspection?

Should You Have Your Home Professionally Inspected Prior to Sale?

What Do You Do with a Bad Inspection Report?

How Do You Get a Good Inspector?

What Should You Have the Inspector Check?

Should You Have a Termite Inspection?

Should You Pay for a Buyer’s Home Warranty Plan?

Chapter 15 What to Say on Your Disclosures

Do You Have to Disclose Everything?

What’s the Worst That Could Happen If You Don’t Disclose?

It’s What You Should Know

Do You Have to Fix Problems You Disclose?

When Should You Disclose?

Should You Fix the Problem?

Mandatory Federal Disclosures

Disclosure Sheets

Chapter 16 How to Legally Avoid Paying Taxes on the Sale

Basic Rules

No Rollover Required

New Rules

What If You Don’t Live There Continuously?

Two Unmarried Owners?

One Spouse Qualifies?

Are There Exceptions to the Rule?

Other Tax Issues Affected Upon Sale

Are the Points You Paid When You Bought Your Home Deductible When You Sell?

What If You Have a Loss on the Sale?

What If You Have a Short Sale and Some of Your Mortgage Is Forgiven by the Lender?

Importance of Record Keeping

What If You Rent Out Your House Instead of Selling?

Is Depreciation an Expense?

Does Depreciation Contribute to Loss, at Least on Paper?

Depreciation Reduces the Tax Basis of the Rental Property

What’s the Importance of the Tax Basis?

Doesn’t That Work Now?

What About the Little Guy?

Your Gross Adjusted Income Must Not Exceed $150,000

What’s the Other Qualification?

Are There Any Other Kinks in the Rules?

So When You Sell, Chances Are You Will Owe Some Capital Gains

Is There Any Legal Way to Avoid a Tax on Your Profits from Your Rental Property?

Is There Another Way of Legally Avoiding Paying Taxes on Your Capital Gain on a Rental?

Can You Combine an Exchange and a Personal Property Exclusion?

Keep Good Records

What If You Refinance?

Chapter 17: 7 Things to Do When It Just Won’t Sell

What Should You Do?

Why Your House Isn’t Selling

The Bottom Line

Index