Berger Points Broadcast

Well, good afternoon, everyone. My name is Chris Berger, and it’s time for a Berger Point. You know, people talk about or hear about something called buyer’s remorse.

Pretty much everybody knows what that is. You go out and buy something on Amazon, you don’t like it, you send it back. You know, you buy a car, generally you’re going to keep it, but some people do try to take it back.

Same thing with a house. You buy a house, and all of a sudden you’re in contract and now what do I do?

Do I actually go through with the deal? Because now I’m thinking, can I afford this? Can I pay for that?

As real estate people, we generally refer to that as buyer’s remorse. Now, one way to really combat that, again, myself as an agent,

I was out with a young couple and they were scared because they moved out of a condo and put down a down payment and they were faced with buying this house.

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You know one of my favorite things to discover is how a house is being heated whether it’s gas, electric, or oil.

So, you sort of search around you look at the listing and in this particular listing that the two buyers I was going with it was heated by natural gas.

A big win because natural gas is of course, supported by the town and it’s piped into the home. You can monitor the cost easily because you can see the monthly cost and what it’s going to cost you quarterly, so you can put it in the budget.

However, as we were walking around the house, I spotted an intake pipe for an oil tank. Well, I kind of figured it was abandoned and I was going to speak to the listing agent about it.

Because the problem with an abandoned oil tank is that once that home is sold, the buyer, who I was representing, is now completely responsible for any damage that oil tank may or may have not caused. So how do you remedy it?

Well, one of the things that you can do is that you can drill down and check the soil and have it analyzed to see if there’s any leakage.

So, if that comes back clean, then generally you are in the clear. The other thing, of course, is to actually have a company come in and they do this and they remove the oil tank.

So after speaking with the agent, we’re now going to decide what to do.

However, I want to show you what I mean by the tank and the oil pipe. You know, when you see this set up, it’s definitely natural gas.

And that’s how the heat is programmed. However, we were walking around in the backyard. And I do have to speak to the realtor about this. But right here is an oil tank fill.

 So is the oil tank still in the ground? Is it disclosed? And I will check it out. But that’s what you look for. That's my point.



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Well, good afternoon, everybody. My name is Chris Berger, and it’s time for Berger Point.

You know, down through the years, traditionally, when the seller would put in the listing as is.So the house is being sold as is. 

So the connotation is that basically there was something wrong with it, or that’s the feel that a buyer would get. And as a result, generally, it would attract less buyers and bring in less of a price.

 So what the sellers would always try to do was eliminate that as is. but in today’s market, there seems to be more and more homes being sold as is.

And again, traditionally, if you look at some of the homes, they’re vacant. They’ve been sitting on the market for quite a while and so the seller is selling it as is.

So the buyer sees that, takes advantage of it and decides to offer a lower price.And again, because it’s as is, you’re getting less looks and a lower price.

Now, the protection that came about in the last few years is really the inspection that’s hired by the buyer to inspect the home. So he now goes into a house that has an as is connotation to it. 

However, he sees a broken railing.He sees some stones that need to be patched up and repaired. He sees a couple of broken pieces of wood on the deck. And again, by saying as is, the buyer is supposed to accept this.

Now, what I suggest to all buyers and sellers, be open to negotiating the fix. What I mean by that, if there is broken wood down, you know, in the deck somewhere, that’s split, and the buyer is asking to fix it, well, the seller should go out and fix it.

Why?

Because it’s going to take that much more time to bring in another buyer when in reality it costs next to nothing. To fix what’s wrong.Like I say, a broken railing needs to be split and fixed.

So it makes sense. So — that’s my point.

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How do you make your home different selling it from others and how do you make the buyers come and look?Well, basically it comes down to one thing and that’s pictures!Also too, if the home is vacant you might want to consider staging.Well what exactly is staging?

Well, you hire an outside firm to come in. Bring in furniture and they will actually decorate — in a simple way — the living room dining room kitchen and maybe a bedroom.This adds so much to your home. 

However, the real pro of this whole staging unit again is going back to the pictures, but it will help you sell the house that much faster.

They say anywhere from 30 days to 90 days faster than the traditional sale.

So, consider it.  Now, I want to add one more thing…

Okay, so you don’t want to pay for the staging. It’s just too expensive.

Well, they have something called ‘Virtual Staging.’

That is, they’ll come in and they’ll take pictures and at that point when the pictures are posted on the internet —- your real estate agent will make this point — that is called virtual staging.

That room will be implanted or decorated with furniture as if it’s all real.

Why is all this important ?

Again, going back to the pictures the buyer starts to look at different homes and what they’re drawn to are pictures and what appeals to him will drive him to make an appointment to see your house. That’s my point.

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You know, adding value to your home - seller - buyer - what do you look for?What are the hidden treasures that you really want?

Well, you know a lot of people are looking for city water, as well a,s a city sewer and the reason for that is because at that point you don’t need a well or you don’t need a septic system.However, you pay for each individually, each month or quarterly, so always keep that in mind.

Now certainly one of the big things is electricity. So you want to keep that in mind too because if the power does go out how do you run your home?

Well, I wanted to speak to a little bit about a the GENERAC system or an outdoor generator.

Now, that outdoor generator is connected to the electricity panel inside your home and when the power goes out the generator automatically restarts your entire house.

Now could there be some things in the house that aren’t turned on?

Yes, but that’s up to the individual homeowner because the Generac system or the generator system is hooked directly into your panel box and you control the circuit breakers.

Because when you add a generator to your home you’re in fact adding at least ten thousand dollars in value!So sellers keep that in mind.

Buyers certainly keep that in mind. Let’s take the tour and I’ll show you what I mean…

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You might have heard the term dual agency and what is exactly a dual agent? Well, a dual agent is somebody that represents both the buyer and the seller.

This traditionally is frowned upon and it’s actually illegal in Florida, but the bottom line is is that when the listing agent signs with you to sell their home that agent has a fiduciary responsibility to you and to you only.

So they are responsible to get together with the buyer’s agent.But they have to get the best deal possible in your best interest.Now conversely if you’re talking about a buyer’s agent what exactly does that mean?

Well, a buyer’s agent once they sign with the buyer they now represent that buyer in negotiations and they have a strict fiduciary responsibility to you as the buyer.

This way both sides are equal as far as negotiation and both sides are watching out for your best interest.

That’s my point!

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Well, good afternoon everybody my name is Chris Berger and it’s time for a Berger Point.You know, recently I was working with a buyer and we made an offer on a home…

And whenever a buyer makes an offer there’s always going to be contingencies. Now, two acceptable contingencies are of course the first one;The ability to get a mortgage —- and most sellers will gladly accept that.

Well, the second contingency generally is they want to do an inspection.

Again, completely acceptable.Subscribe nowNow, the whole idea when your agent is presenting the seller with an offer is that the buyer’s offer wants to be simply the best! So recently I was working with a client and she wanted to make it a contingency based on the selling of her house

.Well, you know in the past, that’s been a real no-no, and how do you solve that? n today’s market houses are going quicker, but again making an offer when there’s three or four other offers on the table — that kind of contingency just isn’t going to make it.

So what I suggested to my buyer is that she should talk to her mortgage broker and secure what is called a bridge loan.

And simply what a bridge loan is — and the mortgage companies are more than willing to do this — is that they will fund you a loan to the buyer based on your current home in order to purchase your new home.So this way you don’t have to have the contingency that I have to sell my home is simply huge!!

Talk to your agent about it. Talk to your mortgage broker about it.Be ready to move on your home, so that you can be ready to buy quickly.The seller will be happy.

You’ll be happy and… That’s my point!

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You know, people talk about buying foreclosures or buying a short sale.

So what exactly does that mean?

Well, pretty much everyone knows what a foreclosure is. That’s something where the banks — who held a mortgage on the property — have the ability to collect that mortgage and foreclose on the property and title now belongs to the bank.

That’s very important because when a foreclosure happens and the bank has the title that means when you buy it you get a clear title.

Now, I wanted to tell you a little bit about a short sale because that’s the complicated one and that’s something you should be aware of.

When you are thinking about looking at a home that is in a short sale situation, chances are it will be listed and programmed in the MLS as being a short sale.

What does that mean? Discover more about short sales and foreclosures by listening to this short Berger Point!

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Join me on Substack for the latest Berger Points ---> https://bergerpoints.substack.com

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You know, recently I was out with a client and we were looking at different properties around 1,600 square feet.

What we did find, the last home that we looked at was close to 2,000 square feet and a much more poorer state than the one in 1,600 square feet.We talked about space because space is so important.

Regardless of what it looks like now, think about what it can become!  That’s so important. 

So, this particular house that we looked at actually changed the washer and dryer from downstairs to upstairs.

So, if you see a house that has a washer and dryer downstairs you don’t like it remember this —- you can change it!

Listen to this short Berger Point to discover why extra space can mean a big pay off down the line!

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You know, recently over the last couple of years, and I’ll say since COVID, all of a sudden we’re hearing the highest and best offer.

What does the highest and best offer actually mean?

Well, to the seller, okay, they are looking for their best possible price that they can get.And for the buyer, they’re now considering to put their best foot forward.

Whereas if you go back 20 years in the old days, you know, there was some negotiation that went on and there was trust built between the buyer agent and the selling agent.

So with this highest and best thing sometimes agents were sort of going blind.

For example, a house is 500,000, it’s been on the market for 30 days the agent is now asking for highest and best because they have multiple offers.

So they might have offers of $498,000, $495,000, $505,000, $510,000, but the agent is now putting out there for all the people who have made offers to go the highest and best.

Okay. How do you do that? -- Listen to the rest of this short Berger Point to discover more!

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