For many good REALTORS®, the relationship between them and the buyer/seller does not end after closing.  As we know, the home buying process is one of the most important, and expensive, transactions we’ll ever make. Many homebuyers may turn to their Realtor at year’s end with questions about taxes and other financial matters once they’ve bought or sold a house.

Jason Opland discusses some year-end tax tips that you can share with your clients, and even use yourself.

“This is your final reminder to take a few minutes from holiday merrymaking and get those last-minute tax moves done. You have until Dec. 31. After that, there’s little you can do to cut your tax bill.

Make your January mortgage payment Dec. 31. Remember to add the interest you paid to what your bank reports on its Form 1098. Your bank will get your payment in 2010 and won’t report it for 2009. But because you paid it this year, it adds to your 2009 deduction.”

With the great expense of homebuying can come great reward and tax deductions.  Also, there are plenty of other tax deductions to be had as well, from charitable donations and the like.

Click through to read Jason Opland’s blog.

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 I put an offer on a short-sale home and have been waiting for a week to find out if the sellers have accepted our offer. Our agent keeps calling the sellers’ agent who’s said there should not be a problem and to call back later. He promised to get the contract out within 48 hours, but the sellers were busy and non-responsive. He also said this happened with the last offer.

As far as we know, our offer is the highest. Do you have any idea what would keep the sellers from signing the contract? The home has been on the market for 145 days and was de-listed twice. Do you think they are just waiting to go into foreclosure or hoping for a better offer? Do you think the REALTOR® may not be on the up and up?

-Jo

 Short sales are handled very differently than standard transactions, and while many agents claim to be short sale specialists, few have closed enough of these transactions to warrant the title of specialist. When you wrote your offer, your agent should have included a few contingency clauses which are required for all short sale purchase offers. The most important of these contingencies is the ‘Subject to Bank (Lender) Approval of the Short Sale.’

While short sales are pre-foreclosures, and thus the homeowner does still hold title to the property, the bank has to agree to accept the reduced payoff or purchase amount, therefore, short sale offers need to be made contingent to the bank approving the sale. If this contingency was not included, the listing agent would not permit his sellers to sign the purchase contract in its current form, and would need to write an addendum including the ’subject to’ contingency.

That said, your offer likely included a Duration of Offer Period, and this term indicates to the sellers how long they have to respond to your offer. This duration of offer period applies specifically to the sellers and not the bank, thus the listing agent should be reminded of the deadline for acceptance and asked if additional time is required. However, you and your agent should pressure the listing agent to collect his seller’s signatures immediately.

Short sales are time intensive, though, and once the offer has been submitted, you’ll need to be patient as you wait on the bank’s response. However, your Realtor should follow up with the listing agent at least once a week for updates. Short sales are usually well worth the wait, though, and best of luck with yours!

 Jason Opland is a REALTOR for Obvious Choice Realty in Columbus, Ohio.

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I was wondering if every time you submit an offer, is the REALTOR® supposed to submit the pre-approval letter and pre-qualification letter plus our FICO scores? We have probably submitted 10-12 offers and we haven’t had a response from even one of them! Not even a no. I heard that when dealing with bank owned and short sales, if that information is not submitted, the the bank doesn’t even deal with it and they throw the offer out. Is that true?

-Sherrie

The banks do require that prospective buyers submit a pre-approval letter with their offer, and this is the case for properties the banks own (Real Estate Owned (REO) properties) as well as pre-foreclosure (short sale) properties. Banks do not, however, require that prospective buyers submit their FICO scores. Rather ,the pre-approval is all that need accompany your offer.
 
Despite what you may have heard, the banks will not simply throw out your offer if a pre-approval letter is not attached. They would request that a copy be submitted. That said, if the listing Realtor were to receive multiple offers on a property, and if their client has advised them only to submit the highest and best offers to the bank(s), in this situation your offer may never be submitted to the bank. 

So to answer your question, it really depends on what the property owner has instructed the listing agent to do. However, I will tell you that my group notifies all prospective parties as to the status of their offer and if the terms they offered were sufficient to earn them the top position and the honor of being submitted to the lender, or alternatively if the terms were insufficent and short of this position. Then, they would need to push on and resume their home search. 

Jason Opland is a REALTOR for Obvious Choice Realty in Columbus, Ohio.

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