Allison Jung - Life as a Real Estate Agent in Henderson and Las Vegas

The Pitfalls of Selling A House in a Seller’s Market- Low Appraisal

Selling your house when the market is hot and demand is high is ideal! Sellers dream of multiple offers outbidding each other to get the seller to accept. The seller thinks, “Maybe I’ll get a cash deal. Maybe I’ll have someone pay lots more than my asking price!” But there’s some things one has to think about before choosing the right offer.

When you’re selling in a seller’s market, know that the buyers are often tired of making offers and having them rejected. Some buyers get desperate and make offers they can’t even afford! One buyer recently had 3 offers rejected so on the next house, they decided to go BIG. And guess what, the seller bit! But the seller’s agent reminded the seller that this buyer was going to need a loan to buy the home and there would be an appraisal contingency. What if the appraisal comes in lower than the offered price? In the Las Vegas standard contract, there is an appraisal contingency that says the buyer doesn’t have to buy the home if the appraisal comes in low. So 2 weeks after they opened escrow, they could be cancelling it and having to go find another buyer. This can be heartbreaking for both parties and the seller may even be in contract on a house to buy and this can be a negative chain reaction. Sure, the seller could reduce the price to meet the buyer’s appraisal, but why put yourself in that situation when you had multiple offers on your house just a few weeks ago?

So, what sellers will do in a case like this, is ask the buyer if they’ll, 1) waive the appraisal or, 2) pay cash up to a maximum amount to meet the appraisal. For example, if the buyer offers to pay $300,000 on a house, but we think the appraisal will likely come in around $285k, the seller will want to know if the buyer has $15,000 extra to make up the difference. If the buyer is a first time home buyer or using a 3% down payment loan, there’s a good chance that they’ll be tight on cash. An additional $15,000 may not be available to the buyer. So, what would the buyer be willing to pay? $5000 over the appraised value? If that’s the case, then really, the seller needs to gear his thinking to a $290,000 purchase price ($285k appraised value + $5000 cash from the buyer). The offer of $300,000 is not real. They might as well have offered $1 million. The $290,000 is real.

I’d recommend getting proof of funds if the buyer agrees to pay some money over a low appraisal. Some buyers are looking to their family for help if they’re cash strapped, so make sure you’ve got assurances that the cash is readily available and not just a story.

14 offers in 3 days- How a buyer makes their offer stand out

If you were looking to buy a home under $200,000, expect some heavy competition this summer.

I have a new listing in the southwest area of Las Vegas that is super cute and priced to sell. I felt like we priced it according to the upgrades of the home and not entirely on what had recently sold in the last six month. I don’t think the sellers expected this kind of response. I sure didn’t.

Because of the price point, we had mostly offers from owner-occupant, first time homebuyers. Nearly all of them were using an FHA loan. These loans are great because you only have to put 3.5 percent as a down payment. If you have a slightly lower credit score, this would be the way to go if you can’t qualify for conventional loan.

When we have this much competition for one property, people start offering more money than the asking price. That’s great but if the buyer is using a loan, there will be an appraisal. If the house does not appraise for the agreed-upon price, we may be back to the negotiating table. FHA buyers may be at a disadvantage in the offer stage because the FHA amendatory clause offers an “out” to paying the originally agreed upon price. With the sellers knowing this, they may not choose an FHA buyer to go into contract. I discussed the amendatory clause with two different lenders and got two different opinions. One felt it did not preclude the buyer from paying over the appraised price. The other felt it did. My clients rather not take that chance and decided to go with a non-FHA buyer.

So that took out the majority of offers. But the remaining ones were all very close. All were aware of the fact that the home might not appraise for the over-list price. So all of them set a limit on how much more they would be willing to pay on a low appraisal. The one that stood out to us though was the one that made the effort to get preapproved by our preferred lender and offered to pay some of the traditional seller costs like transfer tax and title insurance. The price they offered to pay was not the highest, but because of the way the offer was structured, it would net the sellers the most money. They also did not ask for any repairs or concessions, and they did not have any contingencies for the purchase of the home.

The agent contacted me several times during the offer process and politely ask questions and listened for any advice I might give. She was never pushy or demanding, but she gave me a clear picture of who her buyer was and did not call me just to say, “hello” like other agents. Some agents didn’t even bother to call me and just emailed the offers to me. That’s fine if you think your offer is *that* strong. But if you know your client’s offer is in the middle of the pack, you should at least try to contact the seller’s agent once.

In the end, I know the buyer we chose is excited to win the bid and I think he should thank his lucky stars to having a good agent help him put the offer together.

Death Valley Wild Flowers

Just a 2 hour 20 minute drive from Las Vegas is North America’s lowest elevation and one of the hottest places in the U.S. For even someone like me who works all the time, you can afford a day trip to check this place out. They say camping is the way to go since the night skies here are as dark as our ancestors witnessed. “The clear, limpid atmosphere brings [the stars] very close. You feel you could reach up and pull them down,” said Bessie Johnson. The International Dark Sky Park has designated this #3 and the largest on their list.

The inspiration for this trip was the super bloom I had heard about. Let’s be clear, this is not tulip fields in the Holland but the beauty of these flowers is still astounding when you see that they’re growing out of rock and dirt.

On our way to the national park we pulled over to an amazing field of flowers.

Our next stop was Dante’s View inside the park. The view of Death Valley is from more than 5000 feet above the valley floor.

Zabriskie Point

All of our stops were quick and easy. No hiking and parking lots. This is a trip grandpa could have taken with us.

We took the route home through Beatty. It’s a funny little town just a few miles away from the ghost town of Ryholite. It’s an area that’s remote but has a cool factor to it. It’s because of the nearby open air Goldwell Museum and the fact that you can hang out and soak in a hot spring at Bailey Hot Spring.

We were gone for 8 hours total and were home to watch Saturday night UFC at home. It’s great to feel like you’ve had an adventure or accomplished something but still come home to sleep in your own bed.

Pear and Gorgonzola gelato

You heard right. Gelatology in the SW area of Vegas near Rainbow and Windmill is the place to be. The owner of the shop used to have a shop downtown but sold it and moved to the hot Southwest.

This is a place that gets 5 stars for service and food. Cause gelato is food – real, good food- in my belly.

You’ll find exotic flavors like pear and Gorgonzola, Doritos, green tea Kit Kat and lemon poppyseed. It’s all delightful including the old standbys like Chocolate.

This place is just down the road from Penn Jilette’s old house, The Slammer. The home was for sale and I hope it becomes an Atheist community center in the future. The group raising money to buy it is the United Church of Bacon. Talk about universal love!

The owner of Gelatology will let you taste the flavors until your heart is content. Just do like I did and try many and then order practically 1 quart of mixed flavors to take home. I felt guilty with the 6th flavor I tasted but I spent $21 on gelato by the time I left.

Gelatology, 7910 S Rainbow Blvd., Unit 110, Las Vegas, NV 89139 (702) 914-9144

Dumpling Head

Lately my daughter has been wanting dumplings nonstop. So instead of boring myself by going to the same restaurants to satisfy her, I’ve been driving out to other neighborhoods and eating at some great places.

The Noodle Man is located just off the 215 on South Rainbow. It’s open for lunch and dinner and packed on the weekends. The noodles are made fresh in-house and you can see into the kitchen to watch them prep your meal.
Some of our favorite dishes include pudding tea- a drink when you suck egg? pudding (more like a light custard) through a large straw floating in cold tea.

A5. Spicy pork wonton topped with green onions and chopped peanuts. An appetizer that’s hard to share.

C3. Homemade Zha Jiang Noodle with ground pork, bamboo shoots, dry tofu, black mushrooms, cucumber, carrots and bean sprouts.

A4. Steamed pork and leek dumplings. She’s going in for the kill.

And a favorite, recommended by Sabby Shin, the vegetable pancake with egg, leeks, dry tofu and sweet potato vermicelli.

This area of Las Vegas is really developing into a destination for food. There’s a lot of great Asian options out here. This is one place that I highly recommend and one I tell my new transplants from other cities who move to the Southwest.

Noodle Man, 6870 S. Rainbow suite 101, Las Vegas, NV 89118, 702-823-3333 (what a lucky phone number!)