Our small office in the Central West End of St. Louis city, (where the flowers are always large and in full bloom, the skies are always blue and the bugs are very, very tiny,) has been averaging at least 6 closings a month. The city of St. Louis has been doing a very nice recovery over the debaucle of the past several months. Prices are rising thoughout the city, selling times are decreasing, listings are clearing out while pending contracts are staying steady...all spells a good real estate market.
The midwest, in particular St. Louis, has always been known for its centrist, common sense, mentality. Its not surprising that, should the rest of the country follow the midwest lead, the nation is being lead by the midwest back into a recovery. However, we still have a long winter season ahead of us. And so far, no word of extending the $8,000 tax credit.
I wanted to talk a bit about the last couple of closings we've experienced in this office. They both pose interesting problems that were solved.
The first closing was for a first time buyer who was getting his purchase from a grant he is being given for research at Washington University. The problem in this closing was certainly not the loan. No problems there. The problem was actually in the seller of the property, who was facing foreclosure if he didn't sell this home. The seller was a rehabber. He did nice work, but there were things that needed to be taken care of that he was or wasn't aware of when he did work on the property. One was a break in a lateral sewer line, the second was an electric box that had mixed tabs, and the third was a suspect roof. The seller, facing foreclosure, didn't have a lot of money to repair. So, the electrician was not a problem, the seller had a qualified electrician do the work. The second, the lateral sewer repair, was a little tricker. A normal repair like that will cost around $7,000 to complete. I found a small contractor who would do it for $2,800. But, the listing agent found an even smaller contractor who did the work for $1,800. Moral: bid out the work. As long as a qualified contractor does the repair and he guarantees it, your buyer should be fine. Price is always negotiable.
The third problem was the roof. The building inspector said the roof was shot and showed several photos. But the home owner said that the roof was five years old. Now what? Well, we asked for a qualified roofer to examine the roof and give an opinion. The seller had a roofer come out who simply said there was life left in the roof. To this day, that roofer has not returned a phone call inquiring how much life or addressing the six suspect spots where there were actual holes in the roof. As we did our walk thru prior to closing, we asked a local roofer to take a look at the roof. He said the roof was maybe about 10 to 15 years old and that there were indeed six spots where the "under roof" was pushing through the top roof, creating holes and that was the cause for concern because it could leak at any time.
We refused to close. And submitted a mutal release. The seller gave us $2,000 towards roof repair and we closed. (I forgot to mention that the seller also removed the stove and refrigerator which were supposed to be left behind.)
Hold your ground if you are right.
The second closing would not have happened as Wells Fargo told the buyers that there was no problem with their loan and then the day of closing denied the loan! That left our buyers in a legal lurch. Because they did not have a denial of loan by loan commitment date, they were obligated under the contract to purchase. Jumps in the hero! Heartland Bank! Who, because they are a local bank and follows FNMA guidelines instead of the stricter guidelines self-imposed by other lender, closed the loan in two weeks at a whole point lower in interest rate than Wells. Our hero...on many fronts.
Watch your lender and stay in contract.
That's all for now. Until next real estate time. I'm always happy to hear your real estate stories. Please comment and let me know what's going on in your real estate world.
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