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Questions For North Georgia Real Estate Agents
Frequently Asked Questions
1. When purchasing a foreclosure, is it the same process as purchasing a regular home on the market?
2. If I do purchase property in the North GA Mountains, do I have to be present for the closing?
3. Do you cut your commission?
4. Do I have to get a home inspected?
5. Should I use a local lender?
6. Should I use a local closing attorney?
7. What is earnest money?
8. When I find the perfect property, what is the next step?
9. Are termites a problem in the North GA Mountains?
10. Do banks require a termite letter?
11. Why is it better to use one Realtor instead of calling all of the listing agents about individual properties?
12. Is there trash collection in the North GA Mountains?
13. What are the taxes in the North GA Mountains?
14. What is a perk test?
15. Do I need to get a survey?
16. Do we work on weekends?
17. Why does it seem like Realtors take forever to answer e-mails and voicemails?
18. What areas do you specialize in?
19. What are the closing costs going to be?
20. Who pays for the closing costs?
21. Does it snow in the North GA Mountains?
Answer regarding foreclosures:
Buying a foreclosure is the same as purchasing a regular cabin but the only difference is in the inspection process. You can have the home inspected but can not ask for any repairs, the home must be purchased “AS-IS” and the bank holding the home has a 9 page addendum to the contract that say just that, they do not warrant the home and they are not responsible for anything that has happened or will happen to it. Everything else is the same. Here are the steps.
1. We would make an offer to the Bank’s Listing Agent. When working with a Bank instead of an individual Seller it’s a little more time consuming because the Bank’s representative only works from 9-5 Monday thru Friday and they handle numerous foreclosures every day. Therefore, they get to the offer in their own sweet time. Keep in mind that this is normally an automated process, meaning that the Listing agent does not actually talk to the bank representative but rather submits and online form that the bank has created. So even though you may want to plead your case and tell the bank all reasons behind your offer, it’s falling on deaf ears, the only thing the bank is concerned with are the numbers and the terms of the contract. Most of the time, the Bank representative has never seen the house and he/she is physically located in another part of the country. They can rarely even pronounce Ellijay (ella-jay).
2. Once an offer or counter offer has been accepted your earnest money is deposited into my brokers escrow account and my assistant coordinates the closing with the attorney and your lender.
3. During this time is when you would normally have the property inspected and there would be another round of negotiations if the inspector required any repairs, but because the home is sold as-is this does not happen. During this waiting period between the contract acceptance and closing is when your lender has the home appraised and gathers all of their necessary paperwork to complete the closing.
4. The final step is to sign all of your closing documents either in person at the attorney’s office or by mail. After the funds are disbursed and the papers are signed, the home is now YOURS!
Answer regarding closing:
Absolutely not! In fact most people are not present for the closing. With a majority of our Buyers and Sellers being located out of state it is not always practical for them to fly in just to sign some papers. Instead we do what’s called a “mail-away” closing. Either party in the transaction can do a mail-away. The important thing is to make us aware that you would like to do a mail-away as soon as a contract is signed. A mail-away requires that the attorney prepares the documents about a week in advance if one side of the transaction is closing via mail and two weeks in advance if both sides are closing by mail. The attorney will UPS Overnight the closing package to the Sellers to sign, the Sellers will have to sign and notarize their portion of the documents then Overnight them back to the attorney’s office in the prepaid envelope. The attorney then makes sure that everything is signed correctly and Overnights the package to the Buyers to repeat the process. The attorney will then disburse the funds on the day of closing by either wiring the funds into the account of the Seller or by check, whichever is preferred. Keys and signed documents are then mailed to the Buyer.
Answer regarding commission:
It is our Brokers office policy to not negotiate commissions. Commissions’ are an item that is agreed upon in advance with the seller, NOT an item to be negotiated during the sale of a property.
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