MONEY MATTER
Thinking of buying or selling a house? Maybe refinancing? Perhaps you would like some advice on buying and selling homes and mortgage loans; if so, you might want to keep an eye on Money Matters in the coming months, as I’ll be providing all sorts of tips and ideas as we go. approaching the season for buying and selling houses. I’ll be discussing a wide variety of real estate and mortgage financing topics that you should know (things real estate agents don’t want you to know). Well, good agents won’t have a problem with you knowing this information, but part-timers and less ethical operators would certainly prefer that you don’t know what I’m about to share with you.
You see, buying or selling a home is the biggest investment of a lifetime for most people and it’s a BIG deal… a transaction made up of people, emotions, contracts, and cash… all the ingredients for legal pain. and financial if you don’t know what you’re doing. Real estate agents earn a commission when a home is sold, whether it’s the listing agent, the selling agent, or both. Real estate agents typically (and legally) represent the sellers in a real estate transaction and not the buyers. Yet every day home buyers refer to the real estate agent as “my real estate agent”… they are not your real estate agent… they are the home seller’s agent and the agents they have a legal duty to obtain the best selling price. for the seller. Also, anything you say to them can and probably will be used against you to get a higher selling price for the deal. Sellers, on the other hand, are often manipulated into signing long-term listing contracts for up to a year by an agent who will simply dump the listing onto the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) and wait for another agent to sell the property. for them.
For agents, getting listing contracts is the name of the game…a common catchphrase among real estate agents is: “if it doesn’t list, it won’t last.” Once an agent gets a listing contract from a home seller, they will get most of the commission when the house is sold, whether they sell it or another agent sells the house. Not many sellers know this fact and many swoon over long-term listing agreements hoping to sell their homes for the highest possible price only to find out they don’t. Agents will say and do almost anything to obtain a listing contract without breaking the law. And the big question for home sellers is whether they’re working with a full-time or part-time agent. What is your experience in marketing and sales? Do you really want to sign a long-term listing contract with a part-time worker who has one toe in the tub and no business background? We were talking about a business, right?
Whether you are buying a home or selling a home, you need to be clear that you will be signing legally binding contracts and relying on mortgage lenders to provide financing for the project. The question then becomes; How much do you know about contract law and mortgage financing? What are the most important elements of a contract and how does it affect you as a buyer or seller? This series of articles is usually drawn from my e-report (101 Real Estate Tips for Buyers, Sellers, and Money Borrowers). The report is designed as a crash course to give you the information you need to know to protect your legal and financial interests, whether you’re buying or selling a home. This series of articles will cover the information you need to know to avoid making blatantly stupid mistakes that could hurt you legally and financially, and we’ll try to have a little fun in the process…
Which reminds me! If you would like to receive a FREE copy of my eReport: 101 Tips for Buyers, Sellers and Borrowers of Money, go to the Smart Books website, email us and request a copy and we will send it to your email address within 24 Hours-Absolutely Free-Other Ezine Articles Exclusive! Don’t forget to say you saw it in Ezine! Stay tuned!
Copyright © 2006
James W. Hart, IV
All rights reserved
