Aaron Dickinson - Edina Realty

The 800 # fees are the lender's, the rest are title, taxes, escrows, etc. - Yesterday, 15:38

Estherk,

I think you might be a little misinformed on the role of a mortgage broker. Yes, they do shop around for different rates with different companies, but that isn't to say that assures you a better price than a loan officer that only works for one bank or what another broker would quote. Sometimes a broker is better, sometimes a banker. The difference is where their money comes from. A broker does not hold the loan, a banker (Wells Fargo, US Bank, etc) has the money to underwrite and hold your loan indefinitely on their own... so they are direct lenders vs. resellers of others' loan programs. With recent tightening of lending standards, I've found a couple situations where a banker has been able to get loans for my clients a broker could not.

Also, since rates change every day (sometimes 3x a day) and vary by loan product, it is important it is an apple-to-apple comparison.

Finally, some bankers and brokers will "goose" their fees so that they can buy down the interest rate. It is important that each quote you get be comprehensive and only look at the lender fees, not the title, taxes or escrow amounts as those are based on whatever it costs and sometimes lenders will set them artificially low to account for their inflated fees. - Thu Jul 24 2008, 19:19

Minnesota doesn't require any contract to be signed per-se, but most of the time an agent gets compensated in a real estate transaction based upon the terms of a signed representation contract, so at the very least an agent is going to demand it be signed at the time the offer is written.

Some agents request it be signed early on so that they know that the time they are spending with you is actually going to be worth something... there are a lot of tire-kicking buyers out there right now! We work on commission, so we don't get paid anything for helping people that don't eventually buy something. A contract solidifies the commitment of the buyer and also of the agent!

State of Minnesota does have a mandatory Real Estate Agency Relationships in Minnesota form that agents have to go over with you at first substantive contact and they will request you sign that, but that is a disclosure form only. If an agent gets audited and doesn't have that form signed early in the relationship, they may get in trouble with the Department of Commerce. - Thu Jul 24 2008, 09:51

Banks will only give you credit for 75% of the rent payment towards your house expenses, so that might not be viable if money is tight.

It never hurts to get a couple opinions... every REALTOR looks at things different and all we can do is give opinions on what we feel the market will bear but given your location & competition, there's a lot of factors we cannot control.

Good luck to you! - Wed Jul 23 2008, 12:06

There are, but if you think about the economics of it, the buyout price you receive is going to be at a low enough point that had you priced it closer to that in the first place it probably would sell to the general public.

REALTORS don't make enough money to take a loss on houses, so the buyout needs to be low enough that they can afford to buy & sell it and at least get close to breaking even. That means quite a bit of transaction costs for closing fees, taxes, title, etc. times 2 since they are selling it twice. - Wed Jul 23 2008, 11:37

The form the sellers are supposed to sign regarding the program has it written as: "seller to contribute $xxx dollars to gift program plus a processing fee of $xxx dollars." - Tue Jul 15 2008, 16:56

Everything is negotiable, but if the buyer is trying to go 0% down they don't have a lot of money for fees. Normally it is considered part of the seller's concession. - Tue Jul 15 2008, 16:36