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How to leverage your second choice into seller concessions and a better deal.

So, rather than competing for the best house and paying top dollar, you can use it as leverage to get a lower price and seller concessions on a home that could be even more ideal for you — after you do a little work.

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Read more from this blogger: Choosing second-best could get you the best possible home

A good tip on getting concessions from the seller.

You should try to get pre-approved by a lender prior to shopping for a home. A pre-approval is a strong marketing tool when making an offer that may contain many a number of seller concessions. Telling a seller that you are already approved for a loan makes the acceptance of a low offer or one where he may be paying the closing costs much more palatable.

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Read more from this blogger: Can I Afford a Mortgage

A look at Redfin, seller concessions, and the value of real estate agents.

Recall that Kelman claims that Redfin agents are better negotiators. I mentioned closing costs when discussing why that claim might not be true:

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Read more from this blogger: Redfin discovers Earth: “It was wetter than we were expecting…”

From a Florida realtor, an argument against seller concessions.

So…if you want to sell here…you better offer something…most lenders will let you offer up to 6% on seller concessions. My version…at the neighborhood cocktail party, you maintain your pricing but get your property sold and don’t get crushed ego wise. I had a great week, how was yours!

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Read more from this blogger: MAJOR MOVES…AND NOT DANCING WITH THE STARS!

Do real estate agents end up with money from seller concessions?

Speaking only for our company, Legacy Escrow Service, Inc., there are NEVER excess funds from seller contributions. The loan officer will take it. We rarely see the Good Faith Estimates, so we have no way of knowing if the broker’s fees at closing match what was originally disclosed at the time of application. We only know that EVERY time we prepare a HUD-1 settlement statement in which there are unused seller concessions, we ALWAYS receive revised instructions from the broker changing (increasing) their fees.

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Read more from this blogger: How Loan Officers Harvest Seller Paid Contributions: An escrow perspective for buyers and sellers.

A look at the Layered Transaction and seller concessions.

I recently read a very informative and enlightening blog post written by a loan officer named Larry Morris. Larry tackles the difficult question of the propriety of seller concessions in quickly devaluing real estate markets. In other words, the price of a property is reduced before a contract is written at the original price with a seller’s concession. The term “layered transaction” is used. Note: The lender is aware of the concession, but is not aware that the selling price was inflated. It sounds like a simplistic scenario, but believe me … it’s not. Mortgage fraud has many disguises and is often very subtle and difficult to detect.

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Read more from this blogger: The Layered Transaction

Are seller concessions a thing of the past in New Jersey?

I received a fax from my friend Jackie, a loan originator in New Jersey. It outlines why The Advisory Committee on Professional Ethics in the State of New Jersey has decided a seller concession is unethical and should be disapproved.

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Read more from this blogger: Seller Concession in Real Estate Closings Held Unethical in New Jersey

A look at the Boise real estate market makes this blogger think that the statistics don't include seller concessions and other behind-the-scenes deal making.

Then, there’s the fact that the numbers are NOT the numbers ~ those are sales prices that do not reflect seller-paid closing costs, bonus commissions to selling agents, etc. Very few transactions are closing these days without some seller concessions, and those concessions do not show up in the median price numbers.

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Read more from this blogger: Boise Real Estate November Stats

It's on from seller concessions to "drama pricing" to turn housing inventory.

In addition to seller concessions (pay closing costs, etc.) and buyer incentives (free Mini Cooper with purchase, etc.), “Drama Pricing” is one more way to create perceived value to drag buyers off the fence and into the ring. Buyers, it may be a great time to put on the big boxing gloves, get into the ring, and create some drama.

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Read more from this blogger: Drama Pricing

Some tips on foreclosure sales.

I always thought that his concept works phenomenally well with our kind of business – you know like buying really low, fixing it and flipping it at full market value – if you have $30,000 to $50,000 in equity after repairs – you have enough room to underestimate repair costs, give generous seller concessions, help with down payment assistance, buy appliances, pay bird dog fees and still makes tons of dough at the end of the day.

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Read more from this blogger: Bad Math In Foreclosures

Some tips for sellers in the declining Detroit housing market.

Now what is the flip side of the equation – most sellers are having a hard time selling homes because they are pricing their homes correctly – they are dropping prices but that does not help most buyers in the real world – a better strategy would be to give aggressive seller concessions / down payment assistance to make the house “best on the block” without wasting any money on renovations thinking a new kitchen (that adds another couple of thousand dollars to your cost of the house) will move the house faster.

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Read more from this blogger: Homes Prices Decline in Metro Detroit

The Denver Post picked up a problem with the way seller concessions are reported. Sellers may help with down payments or home financing. That needs to be recorded in Denver.

After a home is sold the listing brokerage inputs the sold criteria into the Metrolist data base. This criteria includes the sale price of the home, interest rate of the mortgage and concessions made regarding the sale.

What is being overlooked by many brokerages are the sales concessions. A trend of late is to offer to pay the buyer's closing costs and sometimes a portion if not all of the downpayment (legally up to 5% for FHA loans).

While sellers have been offering incentives for a long time, it seems only lately that the incentives have become large enought to skew the statistics. While it is true that all the stats are not 100% correct, enough data is being reported correctly, that the trend for a neighborhood can be detected.

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Read more from this blogger: Real Estate & Relocation ^ Colorado: Denver real estate; sold data