Real Estate Term: Earnest Money

Posted by | Posted in Mortgage, Real Estate | Posted on 15-10-2008

Author: Rob Kosberg

When a purchase agreement is signed between a buyer and a seller, the buyer is asked for some amount of money to be paid up front. This amount will be placed in a trust account. This deposit is known as “earnest money.”

The buyer and seller can negotiate the actual amount of earnest money. The amount may differ among contracts. It could be as low as $500 or possibly as high as 10% of the purchase price.

Some factors that can influence earnest money amounts include:

*Seller psychology: an uncertain seller may request more earnest money

*Market conditions: a stronger market may result in more earnest money

*Buyer economics: first time buyers may be asked for less earnest money

This particular financial transaction is a confirmation made in “good faith” by the buyer to show that he intends to complete the agreement. How much or little is paid doesn’t matter.

If it should happen that, during the process, the buyer violates the terms of the purchase agreement or backs out of the deal, the earnest money can be kept by the seller. This does not occur much because, when the purchase agreement s are written , there are “escapes” for the buyer, called “contingencies” written into the original agreement.

A typical contingency is that the seller must provide a clean title policy to the buyer, or that the buyer must secure financing prior to given date, or that the home must pass a satisfactory inspection.

Earnest money will be returned to the buyer if any of the above contingencies cannot be met. Such failure with regard to the contingencies will void the contract.

When contingencies are met, however, earnest money becomes a deposit and is applied directly to the buyer’s bottom line at settlement. If the buyer is expected to have $50,0000 for the closing, for example, the true bottom line is $50,000 minus the earnest money deposit.

Earnest money customs vary from state to state, city to city, and even locale to locale. Be sure to ask your real estate agent and/or real estate attorney for professional counsel before signing purchase contracts. The earnest money you save may be your own.

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Competition in the Real Estate Industry

Posted by | Posted in Mortgage, Real Estate | Posted on 15-10-2008

 

 

Author: Navneet MaheshwariIt

It is feasible to always take help from professional real estate agent to make a lucrative deal. Real estate brokers provide every kind of help to sellers as well as buyers. Without a nice real estate agent, you may never get an implausible deal. There are various ways to find the best real estate agent in your desired area. Real estate agent can be a person as well as a firm that helps you in selling/buying real estate. Checking the local bulletin boards might also provide you with various real estate agents. With the aim to sort out the best from such a huge list, you should ask your family or friends regarding their experience with the real estate agents.

 

Real estate broker tells you the current value of real estate. Lots of your friends or family might have gone through the exact situation and could recommend a preferred real estate agent to you. Nowadays broker performs all essential business activities. Real estate broker deals with industrial, residential as well as commercial real estate.

Always remember to short list several real estate agents before finalizing the one. Call two or more agents for interview and then ask some questions about the firms where they worked for some time, Once you have short listed few realtors, the next thing to do is to contact the real estate agents in person. Agent can provide help for any kind of real estate. Broker gives suggestions to sellers to increase the cost of assets and also about finest piece of land to the buyers. Without getting the proper information and nice price about your house or the property you want to buy, you may have no illusion where exactly to look. Dealing with which type of customers, how long they’re in sell/purchase business and also ask about active number of clients.

There are few real estate agents who will tell you the true price and might aim to fetch as much money as they can from you, thus look out for the real estate agent that offers you the best property at best price or best deal to sell your property.

This can only be achieved by meeting several agents and then comparing the deal offered by all. Generally real estate agents don’t work as lawyers for the parties but they provide the best services for the sellers as well as buyers. Also look at the number of resources real estate agent has and a large market plan, in order to make the best deal with the best customer. For buyers, real estate agent finds the better real estate as per buyers’ requirements.

Anand is a real estate professional for http://usa.b4uindia.com/realestate/