By Ilyce R. Glink with Samuel J. Tamkin
Saturday, June 28, 2008
"W e live in Baltimore and are trying to sell our house," writes a reader. "My agent tells me that my listing has to be withdrawn from the local multiple listing service for at least six months, otherwise the number of days on market will carry forward from my old listing to a new listing. Our house has been on the market for nine months and we're trying to find a way not to show that in the MLS."
It's a rough time to be a home seller. Unfortunately, there are more people trying to sell their homes than folks who want to buy them. That means there's a lot of "excess inventory" -- unsold houses, if you're looking to get around the jargon -- that has to be sold before the housing market turns around.
Sellers are desperate to show their homes in as good a light as possible. One sticking point is that today's multiple listing services track how long a home has been for sale. And, as the reader points out, there is some concern that the technology employed by these systems will continue to monitor a property, even if it has been pulled off the market.
So does a Baltimore house listed in the local multiple listing service have to be off the market for six months in order to get a new number? No.
According to Jonathan Hill, vice president of business development for Metropolitan Regional Information Systems, which covers the Baltimore-Washington area, the reader's agent is providing incorrect information.
"At MRIS, if a new listing for a particular property is added 91 days after any previous listing was withdrawn or expired, it will be considered a 'new' listing. The history of days any previous listing was on the market will not attach to this new listing," Hill wrote in an e-mail. Until earlier this year, MRIS required that a listing be off for 180 days before it could be listed again as new.
A spokesperson for the National Association of Realtors said that each local multiple listing service develops its own rules regarding how long a property is tracked after it is pulled off the market. In some markets, you will have to wait a month, in others several months. You can double-check your agent's information on this point by chatting with the managing broker in the office or by calling the local service directly.
Freshening up a listing by withdrawing it and relisting it several months later is a trick that has been used for a long time. It is particularly popular when properties have languished from one year into the next because the numbers assigned within a multiple listing service correlate to the year, and sometimes the date, the property is listed.
In other words, if you listed your property in 2007 and you don't want a 2007 listing number, you can pull the property off the market and relist it with a 2008 number.
But whether the listing is old or new probably won't make as much of a difference as the condition, the price and how the local economy is functioning.
Baltimore, like Miami, Phoenix, Las Vegas, the Washington area and almost the entire state of Michigan, among other areas, has too many sellers and not enough buyers. Relisting your home might entice some people to take another look, but it doesn't mean that the house will sell any more quickly. It won't, for example, fix the fact that there are a bunch of identical houses in your neighborhood or subdivision for sale, half of them foreclosures, with banks undercutting your price.
If you hire a real estate agent who belongs to the multiple listing service, you'll have to live by the service's rules regarding relisting your property. But if you're a seller, there are a few things you can do to try to help your situation:
· Stage your house. Staging is the art of taking what you have and either moving it around or packing it away to show off each room's best feature. You're creating a scene (like a theatrical production) where you are showing the buyer what you want him or her to see about your house. The results can be dramatic.
I filmed a rather blah townhouse in Chicago for a staging video this past winter. The agent was not excited about the project, and the homeowners didn't know what to do. With an investment of about $650, plus furniture rental, the stager transformed the house. When the agent came back, she was stunned. She immediately put up new photos on the Web and held an open house. The property had five offers that day. The homeowners accepted a good offer two days later.
· Reevaluate your price. Even if your house is staged perfectly, you won't be able to compete if six similar houses on the block are priced 20 or 30 percent below your list price. Banks have begun to cut their prices to get thousands of foreclosed homes off their books. While you may believe your home is worth more (and at one time I'm sure you were right), you may have to cut your price to sell soon. If you don't feel like competing on price, consider taking your property off the market until next year.
· Make better use of the Internet. More than 85 percent of buyers start their search for a home on the Web. Although the property is listed in the local multiple listing service and your agent may have uploaded that information to national real estate portals like Trulia.com and Realtor.com, there are plenty of online opportunities for you to market your home.
Consider creating a Web site for your house, using its physical address as the URL. Upload as many gorgeous photos of the property as possible, and perhaps even a video of yourself describing why you have loved living there. You can upload the video to YouTube, which will allow you to e-mail it to everyone you know.
This is called viral marketing. If you send this to everyone you know, someone might know someone who is interested in your neighborhood. As my mother, a longtime agent, likes to say, "It only takes one buyer." With the Internet, you're marketing to the world.
· Offer something extra. Want to generate some heat in your multiple listing service entry? Offer to buy down the buyer's mortgage. Offer a bonus to the agent who brings the successful buyer to your door. Raise the commission you're paying, and give the buyer's agent a bigger share (rather than an equal share). Forget about giving away cars, your old outdoor furniture or a trip to Disneyland. Today, currency is king, and it's better if you use your money in a productive way.
If you and your agent are already doing these things and you still haven't sold, then you may just have to postpone your plans to move until the market in your neighborhood turns around. But I wouldn't give it up without a good fight.
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Q We have a house with a synthetic stucco exterior. We have it inspected annually, and we maintain it well.
Yet we know the stigma surrounding synthetic stucco homes. We were told that it would probably cost $140,000 to replace the synthetic stucco with hardcoat stucco.
Are there other sidings that would be less expensive? I don't know whether our neighborhood allows vinyl or whether it would look good.
AWhile the trade association for synthetic stucco manufacturers maintains that today's product is improved and has been shown in one study to be as good as any other sort of exterior cladding, you're right -- there is a stigma surrounding synthetic stucco.
Buyers worry that the polymer-based product was poorly installed, which can lead to serious water infiltration and mold problems.
But should you spend all that money to replace your synthetic stucco?
First, you may be able to replace your synthetic stucco with brick or a synthetic stone product for about the same price or a little less. Vinyl siding might cost less, as would pre-stained wood. You should check what kind of exterior siding is permitted in your neighborhood -- if you're in a homeowners' association, house exteriors may be regulated -- and then price it out.
The real question is this: What would you get for your $140,000 when you sell the house? In your neighborhood, would someone pay more for a brick house that needs to be tuckpointed every 10 to 15 years or a vinyl-sided house that needs minimal care? Would spending the money mean you would sell more easily because you've eliminated the issue? Are you even planning to sell in the near future?
On the other hand, can you save $140,000 by keeping the synthetic stucco and maintaining it in good condition while spending $5,000 to $10,000 to spruce up the exterior and interior of your home?
If your neighborhood is desirable but someone has the choice of buying a home without synthetic stucco, you'll be at a competitive disadvantage, whether or not your home has ever had a moisture-infiltration problem.
If your neighborhood is undesirable for other reasons, or if most of the homes are for sale, it may not make a difference, and you could be throwing your money away. You might be better off dropping the price by $80,000 to $100,000 and moving on.
You should talk with two or three top agents in your area. Pick their brains for ideas on whether this kind of investment could be recouped or, if not, would allow you to sell your home quickly.
Remember to keep good records of the maintenance you have given to your synthetic stucco. With diligent maintenance, your synthetic stucco can remain in good condition and you can probably make better use of your money.
If you have to sell your home in this market and find out that the synthetic stucco is preventing the sale, you will have the option to replace it or to negotiate a lower price, allowing the buyer to replace the stucco later.
My fiancee and I recently bought a home in the New York metropolitan area. It's an 1880s brownstone, completely renovated about four years ago. Because the home is a bit different for the area and can be converted to a single-family building, we agreed to work with the seller's agent to complete the sale.
We felt that we were asking all the right questions and did a thorough inspection. We closed at the end of May, and we've been in the home for less than a month.
We were away for dinner during a thunderstorm recently, and when we returned, there was water coming in the ground-floor level over about one-third of the area, which is all living space. The storm was not that bad, so now we're worried that we've got a serious drainage problem.
The seller's disclosure mentioned that there had been standing water in the back yard, and we asked whether water had ever gotten in the house. They said that it had not, but we suspect that this problem has happened before.
What should we do? We think we've just bought a home that has a serious and expensive problem.
Your situation sounds troubling and has clearly marred the purchase.
Please call your real estate lawyer and consult with him or her about what your contract says, what New York's seller disclosure laws require, and what your sellers stated on their signed seller disclosure statement.
Although it seems unlikely that water never got into the house before, it's also possible that this is the first time. You need to do a little investigating. You should call the home inspector who helped you with the purchase and seek his or her advice.
In addition to your home inspector, you might want to talk to a plumber to see if there are any drains around the home that are clogged and need to be cleaned. If you can find out where the water is coming from, then you can see what it will cost to fix the issue.
Some people never realize when they buy a home that failure to perform routine maintenance can cause severe problems.
Some homeowners don't clean their gutters and downspouts. When they get clogged, the water pours down the side of the house and enters through open windows and bottoms of doors or even through cracks in the foundation. A simple cleaning of those gutters and downspouts fixes the problem.
I'm not saying that the water problem is your fault, but you need to make sure you know what caused it. If your problem isn't anything that you could have prevented through maintenance and if you find out that your sellers lied to you, your lawyer will advise you of your options.
If the lawyer recommends that you sue the sellers, make sure you understand the costs involved. In the course of suing, you're going to have to prove that they knew or should have known about the defect. What will prove it? If you can find the contractors who have fixed the problem previously, or if you can get a neighbor to confirm that there has been a problem for years.
At any time during this process and once you have found the problem, you'll have to find contractors who can come in and assess what's wrong with the property and how much it will cost to fix it. Construction isn't cheap, but it could be that you simply need an extra drain in the garden to tie into the city sewers. It may also be a city problem -- perhaps a sewer is clogged and needs to be repaired.
Until you know what the problem is and how much it will cost to fix it, you don't know what you're dealing with and can't make a smart decision about any legal options you have. So get moving and start talking.
If I were to get a VA loan to buy my girlfriend's home, could she sell it to me for less than the appraised value? And if so, would her income be considered part of my total income on the VA loan?
According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, which backs VA loans, there is nothing in the rules that prohibits a seller from selling a home for less than the VA-determined value of the property.
As far as using your girlfriend's income to help qualify for the loan, it is possible, according to a VA spokesperson. However, "When a veteran obtains a loan with a person who is not his or her spouse, the VA is only authorized to guarantee the veteran's portion of the loan. This sometimes creates a problem for the lender."
It doesn't sound as though your girlfriend is selling you her house. It sounds as if she is selling you half of the house, but you are hoping to qualify for the purchase with her. If you buy half of the house from her and then you refinance the entire purchase, will there be enough money to pay off her old loans on the home?
There are other considerations. In some states, your "purchase" of your share would cause you to pay transfer taxes and other costs. Your girlfriend, in some circumstances, may be considered to have sold part of the home to you for federal income tax purposes. If she has a gain from the sale of that share and she has not lived in the home for two of the last five years, she might have to pay capital gains taxes.
There may be other issues for you to consider, and you need to sit down with a good mortgage person to go through them. Because you are not married, you might want an agreement between the two of you to cover the many issues that may arise if you break up -- division of the equity in the home, who would get to keep the home, and whether the person who stays in the home must refinance to pay off the old debt.
Ilyce R. Glink is an author and nationally syndicated columnist. Her latest book is "100 Questions Every First-Time Home Buyer Should Ask." Samuel J. Tamkin is a real estate lawyer in Chicago. If you have questions for them, write Real Estate Matters Syndicate, P.O. Box 366, Glencoe, Ill. 60022, or contact them through Glink's Web sites, http://www.thinkglink.comandhttp://www.expertrealestatetips.net.
© 2008 Ilyce R. Glink and Samuel J. Tamkin
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