Don’t Be Confused About How Seller Paid Closing Costs Work When Selling Your Leawood Kansas Home

Checking The Pulse Of The Kansas City Real Estate Market

I had a Leawood Kansas home buyer sheepishly tell me they were hoping the home seller would pay their closing costs. I told them it was no problem to ask a seller to do so, but that we should avoid going down that path if possible. Any time a seller pays a buyer’s closing costs, the price of the home is artificially inflated by the correlating amount — and this could potentially create problems when the appraisal comes in later.  Despite the risks, it made sense for this buyer because they didn’t have enough money saved to cover both the necessary down payment and the closing costs too.

The process of a seller paying a buyer’s closing costs at closing is not all that complicated. Generally, on homes over $300,000, I rarely see a buyer ask the seller to pay any of the buyer’s closing costs. On homes under $200,000 I often see buyers ask the seller to pay some portion of their closing costs. In most cases, a seller won’t reject this request and they’ll instead just view the amount asked for in seller paid closing costs as a buyer asking that much less for the home (than what they offered in way of the offer price). Consult with a Kansas City mortgage lender to find out what percentage of the purchase price a seller would be allowed to pay of the buyer’s closing costs and still have the buyer qualify for the loan program.

If a home is listed at $200,000 and a buyer offers $195,000 and asks for NO seller paid closing cost, they’ve made an offer very similar to a buyer who comes in and offers $198,000 and ask the seller to pay $3,000 of the buyer’s closing costs. Both would equate to a $195,000 sale price overall. The biggest difference is the seller may have to pay a real estate commission on the $3,000 higher sale price in scenario two. If they did, $3,000 times a 6% commission would leave the seller paying $180 higher real estate commission. Pretty minor in the big picture. But even that rarely happens because most listings are advertised to buyer’s agents as the commission being paid on the NET sale’s price – meaning the seller wouldn’t have to pay the commission on that $3,000 anyhow.

In our current market, the appraisal should be a consideration in whether seller paid closing costs for the buyer should be part of the deal. If an appraiser determines the seller paid closing costs have inflated the home price by that amount (they have, haven’t they?), then it’s not out of the question that the appraisal could come in lower than the sale’s price. If so, we have a problem Houston. For this reason, it’s always best to avoid seller paid closing costs if a buyer has the money to pay their closing costs. But in a situation where the buyer can come up with their 3.5% FHA down payment but doesn’t have enough for the closing costs, then it could make sense to have the seller pay some of the buyer’s closing costs.

As I’ve mentioned, it’s important that a buyer understand they aren’t really “saving” the amount the seller is paying in closing costs. They just don’t have to pay it up front. They are no doubt paying more for the home than would have if they hadn’t asked for the seller paid closing costs and they also will be paying interest on that amount since it has been financed into the home loan (by way of the higher sale price on the home). And when you sell the home later, what you net on the home sale will be that much less, because a buyer isn’t going to view your home as worth $3,000 more just because the seller agreed to pay your closing costs (and you were willing to pay a higher sale price to make it happen). But, in many cases, seller paid closing costs can make sense for both a buyer and seller and be what it takes to make a deal happen.

Posted by Jason A. Brown

Is Your Johnson County Kansas Homeowners Association A Blessing Or A Curse — Or Both?

Checking The Pulse Of The Kansas City Real Estate Market

Homeowners Associations place restrictions on the homeowners living within a community and those restrictions typically include the types of materials they can be used to build an exterior deck on a home. This may seem like a pain, but it’s those same restrictions that help keep property values higher in the community. An HOA may charge hundreds of dollars each month in dues but it’s those dues that provide the funds to support a nice community pool and maintenance of the common areas and the entryway into the community. So a good homeowners association provides benefits that outweigh the costs and hassles involved.

Despite the hoops that must be jumped through, I’d personally never live in a community in town that didn’t have an HOA keeping the neighbors in line. It’s a small price to pay to have to follow rules and regulations when it comes to the types of materials I can use on my yard fencing, roofing shingles and decking boards. I also happen to like the Johnson County beige color that most exteriors are painted and would NOT want my neighbor’s house painted purple. That could happen if there were no HOA present. Well, actually, that could happen WITH an HOA present. But there would repercussions — the most common being the HOA fining and/or placing a lien on the property who’s broken the rules. Though the most common reason a lien would be placed on a property is due to non-payment of the homeowner’s yearly or monthly dues.

Most communities have a well-run homeowners association, but some others have their troubles. Some don’t have enough homeowners present to cover the costs of the HOA’s commitments. Others have homeowners who refuse to raise the dues to a level that will cover the HOA’s commitments. Others waste the collected dues frivolously. Running an HOA could include maintaining a community pool, clubhouse, walking trails, park, common areas, trash pickup, etc.

A Homeowners Association is also about more than just collecting enough to cover the current costs and expenses. It’s also imperative that the dues being collected are enough to provide a SURPLUS of funds for when major items break down, wear down or become obsolete. I’ve heard 25% used as a good rule of thumb for HOA savings — in other words, if your HOA dues are $400 a year, then $100 of those yearly dues should be going into savings. If you have concerns about the restrictions on the subdivision you’re about to buy into or if you have questions about the stability of the HOA in question, ask the home seller for a copy of the homeowners association restrictions early in the process – or ask the seller for the contact info for the HOA. You can also ask for a copy of the HOA’s current yearly budget and financial statement.

Posted by Jason A. Brown

Olathe Kansas Real Estate Update – March 2010

Checking The Pulse Of The Kansas City Real Estate Market
Real Estate Info for The City of Olathe KS
Recent
15 Days of Olathe Kansas Market Activity

Using the past 15 days of market stats in the chart below, we can figure the absorption rate in Olathe Kansas. Defining an areas absorption rate then allows us to compare the demand of homes against the current supply of Olathe Kansas real estate inventory. At the current absorption rate, there’s 7.2 months of inventory on the market in Olathe Kansas. This is high and we need to see more than a 134 sale per month pace to work off the 962 homes that are currently for sale in the city.

Type
#
Average $
Avg DOM
Listings Past 15 Days
184 $222,306
Total Active Listings
962
Newest Contracts Written
134 $198,747 65
Newest Sold (Closed)
67 $213,394 84

* The Average $ of Newest Contracts considers the price the homes were listed at when they went under contract. Data pulled from Heartland MLS and deemed reliable but not guaranteed. Low samplings in any category can skew results. Stats may not be an exact 15 days from date of this post. DOM = Days On Market.

Whether you’re considering selling or buying an Olathe Kansas home, we look forward to assisting you. If you’re considering selling your home, we give you the straight facts to help you make the most informed decision possible. We don’t blow smoke or manipulate the market stats in any way as it’s important for you to consider the factors that buyers, buyer’s agents and appraisers are going to be considering when looking at your home. If you’ll be buying an Olathe home, we do a CMA (like we do for sellers), so you can get an excellent view of what’s going on with the specific Olathe real estate market that matters to you.  When it’s time to contact an Olathe Kansas Realtor, I look forward to learning more about your real estate situation.

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Olathe Kansas Tip of the Day…
Olathe Installing New Water Meters

Posted by Jason A. Brown