I'm sure that there are many home owners out there that are asking that question. And there are many possible answers to this question. The home owner can start to answer this question for themselves by doing their own analysis of the way their agent is marketing their home.

1. Does your home's MLS listing have any photos included? At least there should be a photo of the front of your home. If your agent didn't even bother to take a photo of the front of your home, how much are they really going to bother marketing your home.

2. Have you heard from your agent or been able to reach them by phone or e-mail in the last 2 weeks? If they don't have time to speak to your for a few minutes every couple of weeks, then how dedicated are they to marketing your home? Their answer to you, once you finally do get in touch with them, is that they have so many other homes they are marketing. You need to tell them that they may need to cut down on the number of homes they are marketing to a number that they can manage and service. The worst thing any agent can do is to completely ignore their client once they get their signature on a listing agreement. That is completely bad business practice.

3. When you were discussing the price that your house should be marketed at, did your agent give you a specific dollar amount or a dollar range? If they gave you a specific amount then look for another agent...no one can predict the future with any amount of certainty. If they provided a dollar range, did you agree to price it at the upper range or the lower range? Whose idea was it to do this? If it was yours, you need to rethink your pricing strategy. In a declining market, one always wants to establish a price toward the lower range. If, as a home owner, you don't know what a declining market means or how it is determined then you need to look for another agent because this is one of the very BASIC things that your agent should have told you. If the agent recommended the upper range without a set timetable for price review then you need to look for another agent because they really don't know what they are doing. You may have a great pride in your home, to the point that you feel very strongly that your home is the BEST home in the neighborhood...with absolutely no equal...then you had better be able to quantify that. Because the market does not care about your opinion. The market (i.e. buyers) only care about things that they can see and touch.

The key to selling any home is marketing the home, promoting and exposing it to as many people as possible. And for people to take notice the keys here is price and location.

Every home is unique, but the one common thing among all of the sold homes is that they were aggresively marketed, priced to sell, and the real estate maintained contact with the home owner.

Terry Iwaniw
REALTOR Associate
R & I Realty, LLC
Off: 856-795-3111 x263
Cell: 609-417-1086
www.snewjerseyhomes.com/
snjrealestate.ning.com
Connect On Facebook - profile.to/terryiwaniw

Are you looking for a bargain home? Then you may want to seriously consider purchasing a HUD owned home. Right up front, I have to state that some of these homes are not in the best condition. Some are in worse condition then others. But you may be able to find a hidden gem. Check out the current list of HUD owned homes we are marketing.

To better understand this you'd have to understand the process by which the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) acquires these properties.

First of all, HUD does NOT foreclose on any home. HUD does not lend mortgage money but it does insure many mortgage loans. So, HUD owned homes are not foreclosed homes, in the strictest sense. HUD owned homes are properties that they acquire by paying off on a claim submitted by the mortgage lender after the MORTGAGE LENDER has foreclosed on the property.

At some point in time, this mortgage lender decides to file a claim against the FHA insured mortgage. They submit their claim to HUD and when HUD pays off on the claim, they acquire the property. The mortgage lender can't get the benefit payment AND keep the asset. So, in return for receiving the payment they relinquish the property that they foreclosed on. Not all mortgage lenders will file an FHA claim. Many will try to sell the property if they weren't able to sell the property at a sheriff's sale/auction. That is the reason that some HUD acquired homes get into the condition that they are in. Mortgage lenders, while trying to sell these properties, do not do such a great job in keeping them maintained. They are usually vacant and anything of value has been removed. It is a rarity to walk into a HUD acquired property and find a refrigerator and/or dishwasher in the house. More times then not the mortgage lender turns over the property to HUD as it is.

So now, HUD has acquired the property. What happens next? Well, HUD sends its appaissor to the property to inspect and value the property. The valuation is done in it's present condition. It is done this way because HUD will NOT do any repairs to the property except what is minimally needed to preserve the house from further damage. If there is a broken window, they will board it up. If the carpeting was removed, they will NOT replace it. If there is an oil tank in the ground, they will NOT remediate. There are certain cases where HUD will allow the purchaser to set aside (escrow) a certain amount of money to have minor repair issues to be done so that the home could qualify for an FHA loan. The appraissor also notes any and all damage that they can see and assign a dollar value to the repair. This isn't done so that HUD knows how they'll have to pay for repairs because HUD does NOT do repairs. What this total repair values denotes is if the property would be able to qualify for an FHA loan or not. HUD designates homes at 3 levels -

• Insured: There are no FHA required repairs needed to be done in order to qualify for an FHA-backed loan.
• Insured w/Escrow: The FHA required repairs total less the $5000 and HUD will allow the purchaser to borrow the extra money and put into escrow in order to insure that these repairs get done.
• Uninsured: The repair total is greater then $5000 and the home would not qualify for a standard FHA-backed loan. However, the purchaser would be able to apply for a 203K (Construction loan) or a Streamline K (similar to a 203K but with a $35000 limit) loans. These have different requirements and the purchaser needs to discuss these type of loans with their mortgage loan representative.

So, now you have a better idea of what you have to work with. The next series of steps involve submitting an offer (which is different then submitting an offer to a private owner) and after that you'll need to know the steps you'll have to follow after HUD accepts your offer.

If you are interested in purchasing any of these HUD owned homes, please don't hesitate to give me a call.

Terry Iwaniw
REALTOR Associate
R & I Realty, LLC
Off: 856-795-3111 x263
Cell: 609-417-1086
www.snewjerseyhomes.com/
snjrealestate.ning.com
Connect On Facebook - profile.to/terryiwaniw