Palm Beach Real Estate and Loans

On Tuesday I talked about being serious if you really want to SELL your Palm Beach Gardens real estate-

Today I'm going to go over the other side of the tranaction - Buying - and try to cut through some of the BS that is slowing down the whole process.

Many people have recently written about how real estate needs to be looked at LOCALLY not NATIONALLY. 

When the media talks about how bad real estate is on a national level they are doing a great disservice to everyone - the AVERAGE is one thing, every city needs to be looked at individually.

There is quite a bit of real estate for sale in Palm Beach Gardens - are there some great deals available?  Absolutely!  But this is not Forclosure Central.

Since the beginning of the year the number of Buyers that I'm working with has increased, the # of showings on my listings has gone up and the number of offers received has increased also - just as predicted, BUSY SEASON is here.

The biggest current problem as I see it is that the average person has been convinced that every home can be bought for pennies on the dollar and that wastes their time, the Sellers' time and the Agents' time.

Why is this?  As I already said, there's the 'national vs. local' misunderstanding and then add the fact that too many people also neglect the difference between sellers who WANT to sell and sellers who HAVE to sell.

What's the difference?

People who HAVE to sell have gotten themselves into a bind - the reason dosen't matter - and can no longer pay for their homes.  They HAVE to sell - and soon.

People who WANT to sell are not in a bad spot - they're selling because they feel like moving to another neighborhood or maybe the kids went to school so they want a smaller house, etc - they aren't under pressure or in a rush.

I deal mainly with Golf and Country Clubs and the majority of the owners that I come across are in the 'Want to sell' category.  While most of them have no problem with some negotiating, lowball offers do nothing but offend them and generally there will be no counter offer other then an invitation for the potential Buyer to go .... (use your imagination). 

Ok, you're the Buyer  - I show you several homes, we narrow it down to the one you like the most and we talk about your initial offer.  I'm going to review the most recent comparable sales with you, how long the particular home has been listed for and anything else that should have an effect on your offer.

THAT's how you come up with a reasonable amount of money to offer - NOT by assuming everyone is desparate and that they should be thrilled with a 50% of the list price!

Once you decide what you want to offer, we're going to do two very important things:

1. We're going to put the offer in writing.
2. You're going to write out a check for the initial deposit.

Why in writing?  A verbal offer is worth the paper it's written on - zero.  Most Sellers won't even entertain a verbal offer.

Why the check?  It's not going to be a large sum of money, it's to prove that you are serious.

I'll then submit the offer & the check to the Seller's agent.  It will either be accepted or if not, countered and we'll go on from there.

It really is pretty simple if you're realistic ----