Want to know the secret to getting the seller to accept YOUR offer over competing offers on the same home? Today we are opening our phone lines to you and also to our realtors and other real estate pros who will be willing to share with you what they find works to put you at an advantage over competing bidders for the home YOU want to buy. Joe Rojas representative for Quality Title Pros is in the studio to answer general questions about the real estate title process.
If you want to stay ahead-of-the-curve in your real estate and financing pursuits, subscribe to get our weekly podcasts complete with show notes for your convenience.
To Your Success,
Jo Garner, Mortgage Loan Officer (901) 482-0354 Jo@JoGarner.com www.JoGarner.com
Welcome to Real Estate Mortgage Shoppe
Good morning, Memphis! Welcome to our listeners across the 50 states! You’re on Real Estate Mortgage Shoppe. I’m your host, Jo Garner, Mortgage Loan Officer. Stay ahead of the curve when it comes to your real estate pursuits by connecting with me at www.JoGarner.com. Subscribe at www.JoGarner.com to get our weekly podcasts and show notes. Our general topic is “HOW TO GET YOUR OFFER ACCEPTED IN A COMPETITIVE REAL ESTATE MARKET.”
Thank you to Joe Rojas, of Quality Title Pros for sponsoring Real Estate Mortgage Shoppe today. If you are looking for a title company to close YOUR real estate loan call Joe at (901) 289-5821. we are live at (901) 535-9732 Today February 24th, 2018.
Want to know the secret to getting the seller to accept YOUR offer over competing offers on the same home? Today we are opening our phone lines to you and also to our realtors and other real estate pros who will be willing to share with you what they find works to put you at an advantage over competing bidders for the home YOU want to buy. Joe Rojas representative for Quality Title Pros is in the studio to answer general questions about the real estate title process.
Introducing Joe Rojas from Quality Title Group
Sitting in the co-host chair this morning is Joe Rojas, representative for Quality Title Pros. Joe has been in the real estate title business for over 15 years and has more than a few good stories to share. He takes great care of my customers too—English AND Spanish-speaking clients. Joe take a moment to tell our listeners a little bit about you and what Quality Title Pros does for your customers. (Joe Rojas introduces himself and talks about what Quality Title does for their clients…)
Comparing Competition In The Real Estate Market With Olympic Trials
(Jo) Have you been watching the Winter Olympics 2018? How about our gold medal-collecting Shaun White? What was the secret to Shaun White’s seat at the champion’s table? Hard work, a driving personal desire…and a great coach from Memphis, Mike Jankowski, head coach of the US Free Skiing and Snowboarding Teams.
Competition is stiff if you are wanting to purchase a home these days. The lack of homes available on the market vs. the high demand from buyers for homes is creating COMPETITION with multiple offers regularly on the house listed for sale.
Do YOU have a driving desire to own your own home? May you want to own several homes one day. It really matters who you put on your team to help you live your dream. It really matters who you choose to guide you around expensive pitfalls and help you out-negotiate your competition so it is YOU celebrating at the real estate closing table with your friends and family. A good realtor, mortgage loan officer and title company and a few other pros on your team can put you in the winner’s circle faster.
(Joe Rojas shares a celebration story of someone that closed with Quality Title (keeping the identities anonymous
Big Family Opted To Build To Their Unique Specifications
(Jo) One of my clients came into my office over a year ago and shared his plan to get his family a much bigger house in a better location for them. Since they searched and searched and could not find an existing home quite meeting all their needs, they decided to build their own home so they could design it to work for their unique family needs. They had to sell their current home before the new home was completed. For every challenge they looked and found a solution. Joe Rojas and I both got to witness the family celebration party when they came into the title office to close on their new mortgage and pay off the construction loan. It is these celebration parties at the closing table that inspires me to serve my clients as their mortgage lender.
(Joe Rojas makes short comment)
Quick Tips To Getting Your Home Purchase Offer Accepted Over The Competition
(Jo) Here are a couple of quick tips from the mortgage desk for you to consider if you are trying to buy a house in a competitive market. We can share even more tips later in the show.
A. Get a STRONG preapproval letter from your mortgage officer. Request that the loan officer review fully your income and asset documents and your credit. It can make the difference between a seller accepting your offer to buy their home—even if your offer isn’t as high a price as someone else bidding against you.
You’ve heard me tell this story about the seller of the property just happened to be sitting at the same closing table with my buyer at the same time. The seller hesitated a moment, then he blurted out, “I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but your offer was much lower than the other offers we got on our house. But your preapproval letter was much stronger than anyone else’s. We really needed to close quickly and so we decided to go with the surest offer and not just the highest offer.” How often does this happen?
B. Be Ready- Besides knowing ahead of time what your personal comfort level is for a house payment and what your personal comfort level is for move-in costs when you buy a home, you need to have your financial income and asset documents all together and ready to submit to your lender. The house you really, really want may be owned by a seller whose main objective is to sell FAST. If you have all of your documents for the lender together ahead of time, you might be able to agree to close in LESS than 30 days.
Getting A Month With No House Note? I had a loan ready to close for one of my buyers 19 days from the date of her initial loan application. That was what cinched it for the seller for her offer rather that the competing offers. If you are renting and worried about having to make two payments during the month you close on the new home, remember that your rent is due on the first of the month and your mortgage payment is paid in arrears. So, if you closed on your new home on March 20th for instance, your mortgage payment would not be due until May 1st-skipping April. This arrangement prevents you from having to make a rent payment and a mortgage payment the month of your closing.
You’re listing to Real Estate Mortgage Shoppe. I’m your host, Jo Garner, Mortgage Loan Officer. Connect with me at www.JoGarner.com or just call me the old fashioned way at (901) 482-0354. But you have to call me PERSONALLY to work with me personally. I DO want to be on your journey to homeownership. Joe Rojas with Quality Title is in the co-host chair. We want to talk with YOU. Call us while we are live at (901) 535-9732.
2nd segment after 9:15 break: Our Look Back Memphis Trivia Contest is brought to you by notable Memphis historian, Jimmy Ogle. Jimmy Ogle offers free historic walking tours downtown in the spring and fall. For information about Jimmy Ogle, go to www.JimmyOgle.com . The Look Back Memphis Trivia Contest is sponsored by John and Jennifer Lawhon of Lawhon Landscape (901) 754-7474 the Lawhon’s can help you plan your landscaping if you have a BIG, BIG project or a smaller project . The Lawhons are giving away a $25 gift card to the first person with the correct trivia answer. If you know the answer to our trivia question, call us at 901 535 WREC 901 535-9732.
Frisco Bridge
Question: I featured the longest steel span in the country when I opened on May 12, 1892.
Who am I?
Hint: My architect’s name is George S. Morison.
Hint: Before I opened, it took a railroad train two days to cross the Mississippi River by ferry.
Hint: I was also known as The Great Bridge and The Iron Bridge.
Final Hint: I opened Memphis up to quicker access to the West Coast and Asian markets in 1892.
Answer: Frisco Bridge. At the time of the Memphis bridge construction, it was a significant technological challenge and is considered to be chief engineer George S. Morison’s crowning achievement. No other bridges had ever been attempted on the Lower Mississippi River.
The bridge is built entirely of open-hearth steel, a newly developed material at the time of construction. The structure features a 790-foot main span and two additional 600-foot spans. Its 65-foot height above the water was the highest clearance of any U.S. bridge of that era. The construction of the piers went nearly 100 feet below the water’s surface.
Though some sources claim two cantilevered roadways were added to the bridge in the 1930s, one on each side, they probably confuse this bridge with the neighboring Harahan Bridge, which had two cantilevered roadways from 1917 until the Memphis & Arkansas Bridge opened in 1949. (The former roadway on the north side of the Harahan Bridge is now designated as Big River Crossing, having been refitted to carry pedestrian and bicycle traffic across the Mississippi River in 2016.) While the Frisco Bridge has not featured cantilevered roadways, pedestrians, buggies, and some automobiles used its main deck before the Harahan Bridge opened (the bridge was closed to such traffic while a train was crossing).
Construction for the Kansas City, Fort Scott and Memphis Railway, later acquired by the “Frisco,” began in 1888 and was completed May 12, 1892. In the end the project created a bridge that was the farthest south on the Mississippi River, featured the longest truss span in the United States and cost nearly 3 million dollars. The bridge is listed as a Historic Civil Engineering Landmark.
Jimmy Ogle gives free walking tours on the sidewalks and parks in Downtown Memphis during the year, with the next being the Judge D’Army Bailey Courthouse Tour at 12:00 noon on Thursday, March 15 (meet at the southwest steps, corner of Second & Adams). Weekly TUESDAY TOURS begin on April 10. Go to JimmyOgle.com.
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TOPICS COVERED BY JOE ROJAS
1. What kind of real estate title issues to you see in the title office that tend to delay closings?
2. What are some common methods the Quality Title office uses to correct the challenges and get the closing back on track?
3. What can homeowners do ahead of time to avoid delays due to title problems?
– (example –delay filing divorce or get the divorce finalized before getting into a home buying scenario)
-(complete the probate process in situations where the homeowner has passed away.)
-(make sure any old mortgages or liens are showing released if you are the seller of a home. Sometimes it takes several days to obtain a written and recorded release of an old mortgage or lien.)
-(make sure title is done early to make sure no bankruptcies or IRS liens are present that could delay clearing the property’s title.)
-(make sure the title company and the lender knows if you are newly married or have recently changed your legal name.)
4. Convenience of being able to close via Federal Express with a notary if the buyer or seller cannot be present at the closing. Also ability to use a Specific Power of Attorney
5. Share a true story to illustrate one or more of these topics.
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CALLER: Silvana Piadade, Realtor with Coldwell Banker Collins-Maury (901) 647-6661
Get a strong preapproval letter.
Put down enough earnest money to let the seller know you are serious. In general, $1,000 per every $100,000 on the price is acceptable
Keep the contract simple with no contingencies
Sometimes it is helpful for the buyer to write a letter to the seller explaining why they love the house and why they need the house for their family
THE HIGHEST PRICE IS NOT ALWAYS THE BEST DEAL
CALLER: Tim van Horn, Realtor with Crye-Leike, Inc
(901) 262-5000
Having a strong, credible preapproval letter that lets the seller know that you are ready, willing and able to close. A clean preapproval letter separates the cream of the crop.
Stay away from contingencies. If possible do not make your offer contingent on the sale of your current home.
Use a local lender
Be prepared to close on closing date
Be flexible and willing to work with the seller on the possession date so the seller can remain in the property for a few days if that is what is needed
CALLER: Mary Johnson, Realtor with Adara Realtor (901) 218-7447
Mary brought up the point that in a really competitive market, you have an advantage if you are working with a reputable realtor who is representing you. The quicker you know about home listings coming available, the more advantage you have in time to research and prepare to make a competitive offer. If you are not connected with a good realtor, you are probably using some real estate internet sites that are NOT updated very often. Many of the listings showing up on the internet are already sold and no one has bothered to update the information on the site.
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TOPICS COVERED BY JO GARNER:
1. What are some quick tips to give the homebuyer/borrower an advantage over others competing with offers on the same house.?
A. Get a STRONG preapproval letter from your mortgage officer. Request that the loan officer review fully your income and asset documents and your credit. When you ask me to do this for you, I believe it can make the difference between a seller accepting your offer to buy their home—even if your offer isn’t as high a price as someone else bidding against you.
I have told this story before about the time that the seller of the property just happened to be sitting at the same closing table with my buyer at the same time. The seller hesitated a moment, then he blurted out, “I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but your offer was much lower than the other offers we got on our house. But your preapproval letter was much stronger than anyone else’s. We really needed to close quickly and so we decided to go with the surest offer and not just the highest offer.” How many times does this scenario happen and we don’t ever know about it?
B. Be ready. Besides knowing ahead of time what your personal comfort level is for a house payment and what your personal comfort level is for move-in costs when you buy a home, you need to have your financial income and asset documents all together and ready to submit to your lender. The house you really, really want may be owned by a seller whose main objective is to sell FAST. If you have all of your documents for the lender together ahead of time, you might be able to agree to close in LESS than 30 days.
I had a loan ready to close for one of my buyers 19 days from the date of her initial loan application. That was what cinched it for the seller for her offer rather that the competing offers. If you are renting and worried about having to make two payments during the month you close on the new home, remember that your rent is due on the first of the month and your mortgage payment is paid in arrears. So, if you closed on your new home on March 20th for instance, your mortgage payment would not be due until May 1st-skipping April. This arrangement prevents you from having to make a rent payment and a mortgage payment the month of your closing.
C. Consider what the dollar amount of your offer will end up netting the seller for profit?
My customers who seem to get their home buying offers accepted without too many counteroffers are the ones who do not need the seller to pay any of their closing costs or prepaid taxes and insurance at closing. When you offer the seller his asking price of $200,000 but you ask for her to pay $6,000 or $7000 to cover your costs, she has to subtract that amount from the profit carries home with her after closing. If your competition is NOT asking for her to pay any of their costs, she will most likely accept the other offer and not yours.
If you really DO need the seller to help you pay your closing costs and prepaid taxes and insurance, you need to consult with your realtor, if that realtor is representing you and not the seller, to determine if they believe the house might appraise for $207,000 instead of just $200,000. If you offer $207,000 with the request for the seller to pay $7,000, you just made your offer a little more competitive because the seller sees he is still netting the profit he wants.
Be careful with raising the price like this. If the house will not appraise for a value that high, then it is back to negotiating with the seller again when the appraisal value comes in lower. The seller may not be willing to pay your costs if he cannot make the same profit. Sometimes if the list price is at the highest it can go, the seller may not accept your offer because he knows there is a chance the value will not come in higher.
D. Too many contract contingencies can kill your offer.
If you own your current home, you may want to ask your loan officer if you can qualify for the mortgage even if you did not sell your current home right away. If you write the contract to be contingent upon you selling your current home, the seller may not want to take a chance that the closing could be delayed or fall through altogether because of a delay in getting your current home sold.
E. Be flexible as much as possible.
The best bargains you can snag right now are often fixer-upper houses. Do you really want to invest $5,000 or $10,000 into repairs on a house you don’t even own yet? Probably not. Lucky for you, I can offer you a special Renovation and Repair loan program to allow you to finance both buying the house AND the repairs.
Traditional mortgages require the house you are buying to be in good condition. If the appraiser makes note of repairs like a leaky roof or non-functioning plumbing or electrical systems or anything affecting the habitability of the home, the mortgage company will require those to be fixed BEFORE your close. That is why the Renovation and Repair loan is perfect for someone buying a fixer-upper to use as their primary residence.
Many of my real estate investor clients will pay cash for a fixer-upper using one of their credit lines and fix the house up so that it meets a standard loan appraisal inspection.
They will call me and say, “Hey, Jo, the repairs are all done and the house looks GREAT!”
At that point I get a mortgage approved secured on the repaired house so the investor can use the funds from the mortgage to pay off his credit line. Now the credit line has a zero balance again and can be used by the investor to go pay cash for yet another bargain house. Ching! Ching!
REAL ESTATE TIP OF THE WEEK (Joe Rojas has about 1 to 1.5 minutes to share a real estate related money-saving or time-saving tip):
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Talk Shoppe offers free networking & education to anyone interested in real estate or in business. Talk Shoppe meets every Wednesday 9A-10A CT at Pinot’s Palette 8225 Dexter Rd in Cordova, TN. This Wednesday February 28th, 2018, join us for the Mastermind Principle: based on the book Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. For more about Talk Shoppe go to: www.TalkShoppe.com
Talk Shoppe offers advertisers a WIDE platform of advertising platforms such as radio, print advertising, social media posts using the latest effective strategies. Talk Shoppe advertisers get business coaching from Kaizen-award winning business coach Eric Eurich. Talk Shoppe advertisers and supporters get exclusive membership to a once-a-month training in internet marketing techniques. For more about joining the Talk Shoppe advertising team, call me at (901) 482-0354. Or go to www.TalkShoppe.com and click on the Advertising tab.
2. The Redeemers Group Love Well 5k & Festival is on Saturday, March 3rd at 8:30 am to benefit Serenity Recovery Center. Run, walk, volunteer, donate, fundraise, or be a vendor. Go to lovewell5k.com.
4. SPECIAL NOTE: REAL ESTATE MORTGAGE SHOPPE RECOMMENDS THAT YOU CONSULT WITH A FINANCIAL, LEGAL OR OTHER CERTIFIED, LICENSED PROFESSIONAL BEFORE ACTING OR INVESTING ON ANYTHING YOU HEAR OR SEE FROM THE CONTENT ON THIS SHOW OR BLOG POSTS. THE INFORMATION WE SHARE ON REAL ESTATE MORTGAGE SHOPPE IS GENERAL IN NATURE MEANT FOR GENERAL EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY.
4. FOR THIS PODCAST OF REAL ESTATE MORTGAGE SHOPPE AND MORE, GO TO JOGARNER.COM
5. Real Estate Mortgage Shoppe reminds you that MAKE YOUR PLAN, LET’S WORK YOUR PLAN. IF THE DEAL WORKS FOR YOU TODAY, DO IT TODAY!.
QUOTE CORNER:
Gabby Douglas “Never Quit. Never Give Up”
Huffington Post “He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.”
Jay Leno- “ The first Olympic Games were held in 776 B.C. Do you know how lit the flame?….Betty White. “
Time Out magazine
John Lennon’s plea for us to ‘imagine there’s no countries’ shouldn’t be the Olympics theme song.
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REJOINDERS:
1. Sally Baker, The Source –professional organizer, estate sale and event coordinator (901) 258-4775
2. Clint Cooper, Redeemers Group (home foundation repair) www.redeemersgroup.com
3. Donna Bellinger, Revenue Accelerator, & Business Development Author, Speaker & Trainer. Creator of: “Revenue UP: From Sluggish to Sensational in Sales”. www.DonnaSmithBellinger.com
Transitional Music: Button bar #6
“The Winner Takes It All” Abba; “We Are The Champions” By Queen; “I’m Winning” Santana ; “Memphis” by Johnny Rivers for the Look Back Memphis Trivia Contest
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ABOUT JOE ROJAS, Quality Title Group, LLC Memphis, TN
(901) 289-5821
Joe Rojas has been in the title company business for over 15 years and has assisted hundreds of clients have a smooth closing over the years.
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ABOUT JO GARNER-MORTGAGE LOAN OFFICER:
www.JoGarner.com (901) 482 0354 jo@jogarner.com twitter @jogarner NMLS# 757308
“Whatever YOUR personal priorities are, my job is to help you get the mortgage terms that will give you bragging rights when you talk about it and help you score on hitting your goals .”
As a mortgage loan officer, my job is to help you get to the benefits you want from your financing terms. What is most important to you? I can help you find the financing terms that will help you get to what you want. What is your comfort level on a house payment? How much are you comfortable paying down,? What type of financing do you need to get the house you want to buy or refinance?
Different clients have different priorities in life—some are buying their first home with very little down payment funds. Some are recovering from medical challenges, divorces or preparing to send children to college and some are embarking on a long term goal of buying properties to build rental income.”
Jo Garner is a mortgage officer with extensive knowledge in tailoring mortgages to her customers who are refinancing or purchasing homes all over the country. She offers conventional, FHA, VA or other loan programs for refinancing and purchases.
Jo can help you look at rent vs buy, when it makes sense to refinance, how to get the best deal on your home purchase financing.
Jo Garner has been in the real estate/financing business for over 20 years. She got her start in Portland, Maine where she first began her real estate career. She received her real estate education from the University of Southern Maine and was personally mentored in San Diego, California by Robert G. Allen, author of Nothing Down, Creating Wealth and The Challenge.
On moving back to West Tennessee in 1987, she went into business buying and selling discounted owner-financed notes secured on real estate. In 1990 Jo went to work for a residential mortgage company and has been a mortgage loan officer for over 20 years. Her goal is to offer excellent, affordable service to her customers, tailoring the loan programs to the specific needs of her clients.
In addition to her work in the mortgage field, Jo Garner is the primary sponsor and founder of Talk Shoppe in Memphis. www.TalkShoppe.com She was also the editor of Power Shoppe, a free weekly e-zine designed for real estate professionals and others indirectly connected to the real estate industry and currently publishes on her blog www.JoGarner.com