Kori Shook

Your buyer's agent should definitely be advising you on this specific to your location. In my area, anything less than 10% under asking price will most likely be offensive. I am a real estate agent and a seller right now with 2 properties for sale, priced right. My personal home has been on the market for only 3 weeks, been shown 7 times (which is very good for my market) and I got a low-ball offer 20% below list price. Yes, even knowing the market and dealing with this all the time, we were insulted AND were much less willing to negotiate-- knowing that they were just "fishing" for a deal and not serious. We also have vacant land for sale that is in a subdivision where several other, less desirable properties are for sale, and for more money. We actually got a half price offer about 3 weeks ago. In both these instances, the buyers were just "fishing" for a deal and got bad advice from non-professionals that "everybody is low-balling these days".... If you were my client in my area, I would advise you to offer what it is worth to you. If you feel that you are going to offend the seller, then you are probably right! If you love the house, then be prepared to come up to what they are asking. As long as you never regret, feeling like you've paid too much then it will be worth it. You will definitely regret it if you love it and you lose it because you were just fishing for a deal. Good luck! - Tue Jun 10 2008, 10:08

I think you are correct because a judgement gets filed with the register of deeds and follows the person, not the property. I would tell your title company to call their attorney for a better answer. It really becomes up to their attorney's advice on whether they should insure it or not. - Fri Jun 6 2008, 06:19

It's interesting to hear homebuyers take on the CLFRES and MCBREO transition... You're well informed! I would love to see more people/general public and real estate community complain about this situation. I am an agent, but am also on the Board of Directors for Shiawassee Habitat for Humanity. When CLFRES got the accts, they started actually advertising and utilizing the $1 Good Neighbor Program for local governments and I quickly jumped in and assisted my local government to buy 2 homes to then sell to Habitat so we can rehab them and put them back into affordable housing. The more I researched it, I saw that this program has been in effect with HUD for years, but MCBREO just never advertised it, so none of us knew about it!! CLFRES was so easy to deal with (compared to MCBREO)! I had one other $1 home in the works when the transition started and now it is "lost" somewhere! MCBREO has NEVER contacted me; I submitted the contract in the beginning of Feb, and when I can finally get a hold of someone at MCBREO, they just tell me that "they are working through many files" and will contact me in a few days! It's been months without any call backs or emails!! I just keep calling! It is SO frustrating! In the meantime the house isn't on the market, and is just sitting vacant (it has been for about 2 yrs!) and is continuing to deteriorate! Ahhh. thanks for letting me vent! :) - Fri Jun 6 2008, 05:37

I have seen this. They are putting a deed restriction on it saying you can't sell for 3 months. I didn't see it as a problem because realisticly it probably won't be sold in 3 months anyway. Even if you rehab it and put it right back on the market, it is unlikely that you will actually pass title to someone else within 90 days. They are trying to deter true "flipping' which refers to investors that don't even do anything to a property and just re-sell a property right away which drives up prices. There is nothing wrong with investing and selling for a profit, but they are taking precautionary measures to avoid things like flipping. Any seller can deed restrict a property with pretty much any restriction, so I think you have to agree to it, or not buy the property. Again, if you get the property back on the market even right after you buy it, and do find a buyer that fast, you could always delay your closing until after the 90 days is up. Good luck! - Fri Jun 6 2008, 05:23

good answers... also it depends on what type of loan-- most of the government underwriters are swamped right now and seem to be taking longer even with my best lenders. They've been told to expect 72 hr turn arounds instead of 24 hr and many aren't even meeting that promise. Then if the underwriter comes back and wants something else, it's going to take even longer! I've been experiencing about a week longer than we were seeing a couple of months ago. - Wed May 21 2008, 13:43