Blayne Pacelli

As soon as you get into escrow you should order an appraisal through your lender. The cost is around 500.00. They typically will arrive within a week and take about 5 days to get your lender the appraisal. In California you have 17 days as the contract is written to release your appraisal contingency. You want to know if the bank feels like you over paid or not. Also, even if the appraiser feels like the property is worth more than you are in escrow most appraisers will not come in over the price that you are in escrow for.

The first step is to hire an experienced realtor. That realtor should guide the buyer to a lender that will take care of you. Before looking at a house you need to find out what monthly payment you feel comfortable with. Dont think about the total loan but what your monthly payment shall be. You need to get the piti. Thats principle, interest, taxes and insurance. You might think in your head you have to have a certain area but after getting a preapproval and finding out your piti, you might not be able to get the house you want in that area. A good realtor will guide you through this process.. Remember, once the house is yours you will have a lot of write-offs. Take that into consideration with the monthly payments.

Without a doubt the seller should provide a home warranty. It provides comfort to the buyer that if something breaks it will be fixed for the cost of a copay. If the buyer moves in and something breaks right away and they do not have a home warranty they will come after you saying you did not disclose something that you knew about. Have peace of mind and throw in the home warranty.

Yes, if you can prove it. It sounds like a clear-cut case but you are going to have to take them to small claims to get your money back. Make sure you take pictures and you should have something with the date next to the picture.

If you put the loan in your name you are responsible. You might however have both your names on the loan and have your parent pay the loan through an automatic payment system. As far as tax implications you need to speak to your cpa regarding that. If something happens to your parent then you are 100% responsible. Make sure you put the house in a trust!

In California we have a 250k cap gains for a single homeowner and 500k for a couple. Lets say you bought the house for 100k, then you sold for 1 million. If you are a couple you get 500k of no taxes plus any improvements that you have done. Please check your local laws though.

This must depend on the area. I see one realtor say 8-10%. In California the typical commission is 5% which is split between listing agent and buyers agent. Above that its about 1.5% which includes escrow, title, county and city transfer tax, retrofitting,etc.. So it costs around 6.5% in California to sell a house. You should check a local realtor for the amount.

The seller and agent are a team. Yes, the agent needs to do most of the promoting but you should get it out to as many people as you can too. Whatever social media platforms you have will help the sale. The more platforms, the faster the sale and for more money.

The positive is that alot of them will buy with limited contingencies. No loan, no appraisal and short inspection continegency. You will know quickly if they are going to buy. The negative is that the offer will be below market. You should always try the MLS first and see what you can get. 99% chance of getting a better offer.