Tom Winand

I have found a very easy site to search for HUD homes. It has all the HUD homes in the nations and unlike some of the other HUD homes sites it has only the HUD homes that are available and open for bidding. The site has an advanced search feature that allows me to search the entire country for HUD home under $20,000 or any dollar amount for that matter. Currently there are 826 HUD homes that are $20,000 and under and some of them are very good homes. You can also look at the homes on a Google map search and read the property inspection report. I love this site http://www.gohud.com. - Sat Oct 11 2008, 11:13

Yes it is legal. You are actually offering less than the sales price net after he pays your down payment through a gifting down payment program. So in reality you’re offering 97% of the sales price and there is probably a $500 administration fee on top of the 3% he is paying. So it’s 3% + $500 less than a full price offer. Now with lots of seller they get upset that people what the seller to pay your down payment. They say no one paid my down payment or closing costs why should I pay theirs. Even if it’s usual and customary today in the market; it doesn’t make then any less upset about it. Sellers generally have an emotional attachment to their home and a large unfulfilled expatiation of what their home is worth right now, compared to what buyers are willing to pay. The Realtor is the messenger and please don’t shoot the massager. I would dough highly the realtor told the seller anything about your finances. The seller probably feels he has the home listed for too little and is unwilling to accept 3% less than the listed price. Is the home priced well for the market? If so then it probably worth full price net sales price and your down payment is your down payment, there is nothing wrong with adding it on top if it will appraise for that. That just goes to show you’re getting a good price for the home. - Tue Jun 10 2008, 17:32

Now if your question is how you do price a home in our current market so that it has a good chance to sell. That’s a very different question. First off there are 7,055 (we have been holding study over 7,000 for 5 months) Active listing in Salt Lake County 2060 properties sold in the last 90 days. That is 686 a month for the entire county. That leaves out for sale by owners so there are probably 1200 of them for sale and a small % selling similar the listed homes. The # says that 10.29% of homes on the market will sell and 89.71% will not in the next 30 days. Because were holding study with a slight increase every home that sells is replaced with a new listing. That tell you if you’re not one of the best priced home in your local market you probably don’t have a realistic chance to sell. How do you find that out? After you do a sold price CMA, you then do an active market evaluation. Now this is actually a little different process of selecting the homes that count. I look at a price range of 30% below and above and 20% above my CMA, all similar home and realistically consider my homes benefits in that price. I look at a large area of about 2 miles or so around the home. Taking into account know area price divisions. Most buyers shop price and area and rule out certain types of homes. The # 1 thing you have to know that length of time on the market cost you money in your final sales price. You have to price aggressively at first. The homes that are priced aggressively still sell in 30 to 45 days there ones that don’t stay on the market and eventually sell doe less than they should. The vultures or invest start circling after 100 days and being on the market for a long time stigmatized your home. In this market there are 3 types of sellers those that must sell (bank owners builders that can’t afford to have inventory) those that need to sell (relocations, homes that are in foreclosure with equity) and those that want to sell (lot of these, shoppers with a home to sell, to people struggling with their mortgage with little equity, to short sales). The market will be driven by the need to and have to sell homes. So it’s important to market you home aggressively on the internet is must have a tour with at least photo. The more photos the better. You need to find and even create new buyers. Buyers shop on the web so that means maximizing your exposure on the MLS but also sites like this and Zillow. Your home will have to be show ready with no challenges. That means get a pod or storage unit and remove ½ the furniture, all storage, tools, and your cloths that you won’t be waiting in the next 90 days. Fix all projects that are started paint any room that isn’t neutral or that you customized to your taste. Remember your not buying the home neutralize it. You’ll have to probably price 10 to 15% below appraised value, to create the urgency in buyers to make an offer. Yep I do recommend an appraisal to use a sales tool. It’s hard to argue that a home is not worth what you asking, with a good recent appraisal, especially if you below that price 10%. I believe you have to be on the MLS you just can’t rule out that many qualified buyers by not being on it. Realtor don’t show homes that aren’t on the MLS unless it a special circumstance. I recommend a new model agent like me that allow you to price you home lower because our commission are lower, but our service is better because were web 2.0 marketers. Some have programs like I offer a buy form me sell free. Good luck selling. - Sun Feb 17 2008, 22:28

Living area is one factor of the home pricing formula. The other factors are quality, style, functionality/ layout, age, condition these all add up to the art of home pricing. Few homes are similar, let alone identical, so you have to make adjustment form sold or listed home to come up with a subjective value of what your home is worth. When comparable properties are narrowed down to similar home in age +or – 3 to 5 years, 10% in square footage, Similar style, quality you can now make adjustment and find a value. Some of the mistakes I see not industry people make are, comparing different style home like split entry homes to ramblers or tri-multi level to 2 story homes. That is just not acceptable and won’t produce an accurate pricing strategy. Another common mistake is to compare below ground level sqft to above ground level sqft. Now in English that means basement or anything that’s below the ground level is not worth as much as above the ground level. If you can't walk straight out it's below ground level, now appraisers have told me 1 stair I ok. Why this is is big deal we’ll above grade sqft in 300,000 homes is worth $50 a sqft and below grade unfinished is 20, finished is $35. So 500 sqft room above grade in a 3 level home walk out family room is $25,000 in a 4 level with the rooms off the family room below grade it’s $17,500, same sq footage very similar style. You can’t just compare a 2400 sqft home to any other 2400 sqft home. Pricing a home to sell in any market is an art not a formula. - Sun Feb 17 2008, 22:25

The best palaces to find rental in Salt Lake City are http://www.ksl.com/?nid=468&cat=278 or http://saltlakecity.craigslist.org/apa/ if you're looking to buy my site is the best with all listing and it's map based http://www.spottedhome.com/ I also give a 25% rebate of the buyers agent commission. - Sun Feb 17 2008, 18:51