Housing Wire

MAY 1, 2024

According to Barton, the “substance of the settlement” is a “very reasonable middle path forward for the industry, where commissions are communicated between sellers and buyers and both parties are better educated.” Barton also touched upon the terms of NAR’s settlement agreement.

Agents 360

Agents Real Estate Contracts Real Estate Agent 360

The Robert Weiler Company

JANUARY 2, 2021

In real estate, buyers and sellers must be knowledgeable to make informed decisions. Are you familiar with a land contract in Ohio, as well as the state-specific requirements? What is a land contract in Ohio, really? Essentially, a land contract is an alternative financing option if you’re investing in: Farmland or raw land.

Contracts 143

Contracts Tenants Legal Sellers 143

Movoto

APRIL 8, 2024

After submitting an offer on a home you plan to purchase, a few things might happen – once an offer is accepted (typically, after negotiations but not always), real estate sales agreements come into effect between buyers and sellers. In the case of an impasse, contingencies allow buyers to renegotiate or back out of the sale without penalty.

Contracts 36

Contracts Real Estate Property Taxes Legal 36

Hank Miller Team

FEBRUARY 8, 2022

So what happens if the appraisal is below contract price? The early '22 market is already showing it'll be as tight or tighter than the '20 & '21 markets, buyers are tossing off all constraints to "win" the beauty contest of buying a home. Appraisals below contract price will continue to be a challenge in 2022.

Contracts 98

Contracts Appraisal Sellers Buyers 98

Housing Wire

MAY 17, 2024

The guarantee means that the bank promises an on-time closing on or before the contract closing date, or it will pay the homebuyer $20,000. In just the past year, the Department of Justice has called for a full dislocation of real estate agent commissions between sellers and buyers, and new appraisal bias protections have been set up.

Lending 348

Lending Real Estate Agent Contracts Government 348

Housing Wire

DECEMBER 8, 2023

You know what you do, but how do you explain it in such a way that a buyer understands your value, the required agency forms and everything involved to make it to the closing table? Ultimately, every homebuyer prospect, every contract and every negotiation is different, but your value should be consistent for all situations and clients.

Clients 405

Clients Real Estate Inspection Buyers 405

Listing Spark

FEBRUARY 6, 2023

Episode Summary In this episode, Aaron Jistel (Broker and Co-Founder at ListingSpark) focuses on how recent changes to Texas Real Estate Commission’s contracts and documents may affect home sellers and buyers. As a seller, this can help to ensure that buyers have the actual cash they are claiming they have.

Contracts 36

Contracts Real Estate Sellers Buyers 36

Housing Wire

OCTOBER 20, 2023

So far, week one of the Sitzer/Burnett bombshell class action antitrust buyer broker commission lawsuit has seen four of the five named plaintiffs testify in front of the jury. The buyer who chose them and who they’re working for should pay them,” Ellis said. She did a good job for him [the buyer], but I had to pay her commission.”

Contracts 390

Contracts Agents Buyers Real Estate 390

Housing Wire

OCTOBER 11, 2023

Let’s start at the top —the analysts at KBW believe that a court-ordered injunction could “unbundle” commissions nationally by early 2024, eliminating the longstanding practice of listing agents and sellers setting and paying buyer agent commissions. Relatedly, the commission rates could decline by 200 bps or more. Interesting.

Real Estate Agent 469

Real Estate Agent Real Estate Agents Brokerage 469

Housing Wire

SEPTEMBER 21, 2023

“It’s now entirely possible for us to qualify buyers for their dream home by the time they leave the open house. billion in the first six months of 2023, according to data from Inside Mortgage Finance. Agents submitting an offer at 8:30pm? The lender originated $10.6 As of June 2023, Guaranteed Rate had a 2.5%

Open Houses 396

Open Houses Contracts Finance Tools 396

Housing Wire

SEPTEMBER 28, 2023

An index of 100 is equal to the level of contract activity in 2001. Pending home sales, like new home sales, are based on contract signings. Mortgage rates have been rising above 7% since August, which has diminished the pool of home buyers,” Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist said.

Housing Market 441

Housing Market Contracts Government Buyers 441

Housing Wire

MARCH 29, 2023

Month-over-month, contract signings increased in three U.S. Overall, contract signings were down 21.1% Even though rates ticked up in February, some buyers took the plunge anyway, anxious that mortgage rates would be moving even higher this spring.” In-contract deals rose 0.7% from February 2022. decline from a year ago.

Contracts 295

Contracts Realtors Home Value Housing Market 295

Housing Wire

FEBRUARY 22, 2024

Worst-case scenario, the broker representing the buyer will have to negotiate their own fee with their client and the seller can no longer be compelled to make a blanket offer of compensation in order to list on the MLS,” Murray said. They have gone through all of this and it will end up being punitive to buyers.

Sellers 414

Sellers Buyers Real Estate Agents 414

Housing Wire

DECEMBER 21, 2023

Benefits can include: No down payment Competitive interest rates No private mortgage insurance (PMI) Limited or no closing costs Funding fee waived for service-connected disabled veterans More favorable credit criteria Loan types There are a number of VA loan options to meet the needs of today’s veteran buyers, including purchase and refinance.

Mortgage 432

Mortgage Renovations Appraisal Process Finance 432

Housing Wire

JULY 28, 2021

Kan noted that the Federal Housing Finance Agency reported that May home prices were 18% higher than a year ago. “Potential buyers continue to be put off by extremely high home prices and increased competition.” It’s now fallen on an annual basis for the past three months. from 64.9% the previous week.

Mortgage 382

Mortgage Contracts Finance Investors 382

Hank Miller Team

OCTOBER 24, 2023

Real estate contracts occasionally collapse due to Buyer problems, but what if the Seller bails out? Can a Buyer sue a Seller if they refuse to close? What used to be infrequent is becoming more common; Sellers backing out of contracts. If that happens, what can a Buyer do?

Sellers 52

Sellers Buyers Contracts Legal 52

Housing Wire

JULY 19, 2022

The Department of Housing and Urban Development said it is “looking very hard” at how to make it easier to finance small-dollar mortgages, but has yet to spell out how it will accomplish that goal. Industry practitioners have some ideas for how HUD might make financing such loans more feasible.

Mortgage 380

Mortgage Finance Lending Development 380

Housing Wire

NOVEMBER 17, 2023

Here’s a look at why pending-home sales picked up: The number of existing homes listed increased in October, giving buyers more options to choose from. Major life events, such as mariage, divorce or new jobs brought some buyers back to the market. Some buyers were also eager to relocate to a more affordable place.

Buyers 404

Buyers Sellers Contracts Mortgage 404

Housing Wire

FEBRUARY 24, 2023

January marked a surge of people signing contracts to buy new homes. The increase in contract signings can be attributed to a decline in mortgage rates in January after a run-up in rates in October and November ,” Holden Lewis, NerdWallet ’s home and mortgage expert, said in a statement. “The

Construction 424

Construction Contracts Buyers Development 424

Realtor

MAY 17, 2023

While it’s certainly true that you can let go of the anxiety of needing to show your home at any moment, you still need to cooperate with your buyer, the buyer’s agent, and the commitments made in the contract. Once the contract has been signed, a seller can’t renegotiate the price higher.

Sellers 142

Sellers Inspection Contracts Property Taxes 142

Housing Wire

FEBRUARY 15, 2024

But the good news is, more buyers have become aware of down payment assistance (DPA) options and are tapping into available resources for help, said Susanne Saller, a senior consultant at Caliber Home Loans. They’re using a DPA program through the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency (NJHMFA).

Mortgage 441

Mortgage Buyers Loan Officers Sellers 441

Housing Wire

MARCH 20, 2024

NAR’s proposed settlement – which still needs court approval – includes several rule changes, including a new requirement that buyer agents to enter into a written buyer broker agreement with clients. “We do not have long-term contracts with many of our real estate partners,” the materials read.

Investors 412

Investors Agents Real Estate Buyers 412

Housing Wire

OCTOBER 23, 2023

KANSAS CITY, Missouri — The second week of the Sitzer/Burnett class-action buyer broker commission antitrust lawsuit kicked off with a bang. She also said that HomeService’s guidelines state that listing brokers need to compensate buyer brokers only when the property is in the MLS. Goldberg testified that while there are roughly 2.5

Law 416

Law Agents Realtors Contracts 416

Housing Wire

JULY 3, 2023

billion, according to data from Inside Mortgage Finance. While the 30-year fixed-rate mortgages are the bread-and-butter products for PrimeLending (accounting for about 95% of origination volume), down payment assistance programs, renovation loans and temporary rate-buydowns have become popular options for buyers, Lugat noted.

Loan Officers 354

Loan Officers Marketing Retail Renovations 354

Appraiserblogs

APRIL 10, 2023

The article titled “FHFA Data Fueling Looks into Appraisal Bias” was in the Inside Mortgage Finance Publications e-newsletter on 4/06/23. The Federal Housing Finance Agency is a is a critical provider of the data necessary for oversight, enforcement and research, FHFA Director Sandra Thompson noted during a discussion in late March.

Appraisal 116

Appraisal Contracts Valuation Finance 116

Realtor

NOVEMBER 1, 2023

VA lenders are often looking for a FICO score of at least 620, a benchmark lower than what you’ll typically need for conventional financing. Getting under contract Signing a contract to purchase a home comes next. Getting under contract Signing a contract to purchase a home comes next. Want to learn more?

Real Estate Agent 127

Real Estate Agent Contracts Finance Real Estate 127

Housing Wire

OCTOBER 23, 2023

This includes financials, organizational documents, agent productivity reports, operating metrics, vendor contracts, lease agreements, employment agreements, insurance documents, and more. From a data lens, transactions can be broken out into three different stages: Valuation , Due Diligence , and Contract.

Real Estate 355

Real Estate Brokerage Valuation Contracts 355

Housing Wire

OCTOBER 16, 2023

It’s true that first-time buyers make up a larger piece of a smaller pie, as housing inventory shrinks. However, this rise in first-time buyers helps explain what’s driving demand and keeping upward pressure on prices in a market with mortgage rates currently surpassing 7%. It never will be. I’ll explain later.)

Agents 397

Agents Buyers Sellers Inventory 397

Housing Wire

MARCH 28, 2023

Mortgage financing and the prospect of economic weakness are therefore likely to remain a headwind for housing prices for at least the next several.” Repeat buyers—buyers who are selling one home to buyer another—are able to bring record levels of housing equity to their home purchase, which has partially offset the impact of higher rates.”

Buyers 379

Buyers Inventory Contracts Finance 379

Appraiserblogs

FEBRUARY 21, 2023

The AEI Housing Center recently released an analysis revealing that reports by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) and by Brookings, attributing the greater prevalence of under-valuations in home purchase appraisals.

Valuation 138

Valuation Contracts Home Value Sellers 138

Housing Wire

MAY 23, 2023

The growing wave of loan-repurchase requests from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has yet another major wrinkle, industry sources reveal, and this new problem, if accurate as alleged, threatens to disrupt future merger and acquisition (M&A) activity in the mortgage-finance industry.

Buyers 364

Buyers Sellers Finance Contracts 364

Appraisal Buzz

OCTOBER 4, 2021

Freddie Mac (OTCQB: FMCC) today released an analysis showing that appraisal values are more likely to fall below the contracted sale price of a home in census tracts with a higher share of Black and Latino households, resulting in an appraisal gap. MCLEAN, Va. for those in White tracts, leading to a gap of 5.2%.

Valuation 370

Valuation Appraisal Contracts Finance 370

Housing Wire

NOVEMBER 21, 2023

Homes typically go under contract a month or two before the closing, which means the October data largely reflects purchase decisions made in August and September. Looking at the four major U.S. regions on a monthly basis, sales slid in the Northeast, South, and West but were unchanged in the Midwest. from October 2022’s $378,800.

Inventory 394

Inventory Realtors New Listings Contracts 394

Housing Wire

DECEMBER 15, 2021

The trade group estimates that the average contract 30-year fixed-rate mortgage for conforming loans ($548,250 or less) remained unchanged at 3.30%. “Fewer homeowners have a strong incentive to refinance at current rates,” Joel Kan, the MBA’s associate vice president of economic and industry forecasting, said in a statement.

Inventory 395

Inventory Contracts Government Mortgage 395

Housing Wire

FEBRUARY 20, 2024

A housing market marked by relatively high interest rates and tight inventory — and punctuated by the practice of home inspection waivers to sweeten offers — are taking a bite out of business for home inspectors, who play a key role in the sales process by ensuring that buyers are not being sold a lemon of a house.

Inspection 397

Inspection Real Estate Agent Real Estate Insurance 397

Will Springer Realtor

FEBRUARY 21, 2023

Speak with at least two lenders to bounce one off the other on interest rates and financing options – including, possibly, Down Payment Assistance. Naturally, one should not be afraid to ask what anything means – terminology, concepts or contract language – just to be clear. That’s why I produced this guide for Buyers Planning to Move.

Buyers 68

Buyers Contracts Real Estate Realtors 68

Housing Wire

SEPTEMBER 6, 2023

Both purchase and refinance applications fell, with the purchase index hitting a 28-year low, as prospective buyers remain on the sidelines due to low housing inventory and elevated mortgage rates,” said Joel Kan, MBA’s vice president and deputy chief economist. For the week that ended Sept. 1, mortgage applications dropped 2.9%

Mortgage 414

Mortgage Contracts Inventory Buyers 414