Announcer: Welcome to Ready, Set, Sold, with your host, Bryan Vogt. Are you wanting or even thinking about selling your house, but don’t know where to start? Good thing you found Ready, Set, Sold. Now, real estate broker, Bryan Vogt.
Bryan Vogt: Welcome, everyone to Ready, Set, Sold. I’m your host, Bryan Vogt. Thanks so much for joining us. Happy Saturday. Hey before we get into the program, we’ve got some great, great stuff coming up that I think you’re really going to learn some great information. We’re going to be talking a lot about insurance and how insurance works and how important it is in the selling process and of course in the buying process because it’s what’s 95% of the sellers are going to be buying a new home. So that’s going to be really good.
But before we even get into that, I’ve been making predictions and I have improved the success. I ruled out the Cubs weren’t going to make the World Series, I’m pretty happy that I got that one right. Before I forget the Astros have just won the World Series, first time in 50 years or maybe ever that they’ve ever done it. So I’m throwing it out there right now, this is pre-recorded, truth in advertising, this is Wednesday morning and the game hasn’t been played yet but I’m feeling pretty good about the Astros.
Having said that, let’s kind of talk a little bit more about what we’re going to be talking about in this first segment. As I mentioned we’re going to be talking insurance the next three segments, the second segment after this one, we’re going to be talking about how to pick an insurance agent. What are you looking for? It’s important investment to buying a house and you want to make sure you have the coverage that you need.
Secondly, which would be the third segment, we’re going to be talking about why when selling your house is the best time to start shopping for an insurance agent or insurance company. We’ll talk about both of those things and I think I’m really excited about this because I think we made some great information. Mainly because many times people have an escrow they never really look at their insurance and I think that maybe they should.
We see that quite often from sellers, we’re not insurance agents but we see enough houses that we see quite frankly we see some of the things on what is the closing statement of what people are paying and they do seem a little bit high. Sometimes a lot high. So you want to definitely be in, be a part of that segment.
Then the next segment we’re going to be talking about is don’t wait. It’s always best to get ahead when you’re purchasing a house again, most sellers 95% of the time they’re going to be buying a house. So the importance of getting ahead of the game when picking out insurance and making sure the house that you’re purchasing is going to hit the requirements that you need, not only for the insurance but to make sure there’s nothing wrong with the house internally and the good news is 95% of the time there isn’t. But that 5% that’s what we’re always concerned about. There could be a problem and we’ll talk more about that in that segment.
This week, I’m changing things up a little bit, I’m not doing the tip of the week. We’ve got a special guest that is going to be talking about a charity event that I cannot encourage everyone more to get involved with. It’s a great event, I’m not going to give it up too much. I want you to stay tuned for it. But I think it’s going to be well worth your time. It is a charity that’s coming up that you can be a part of. It’s November 9th, but you’ll hear more details later at the end of the show.
With that being said, kind of run down one more thing is, is the market has been going great. We haven’t seen this market in years and that’s a fantastic thing. We don’t know when it’s going to stop. Again, three month windows is what we usually go by. We know in three months the market can change, good or bad, 60 days is 50% of the time, 30 days it rarely but it can change that quickly. So if you’re still looking to sell your home, this is a fantastic time. People want to get in before the holidays. They just are and so putting your house on the market now can be a great thing for you because we’ve got some great success stories that we heard about and yes that we’ve sold ourselves.
I wanted to let you know most of you have been listening to the show, my guess for I don’t know I think going on four months now, already know that you can get the book free. I wrote a number one bestselling book called, Ready, Set, Sold: 12 Proven Steps to Get Your Home Sold for Top Dollar and Fast in the Metro St. Louis Market. You can get that book, go to ReadySetSold.org, not .com, ReadySetSold.org, not .com. You get the book, it’s absolutely free.
Again many people have already gotten it and have enjoyed it. What is does is, it really tells you step by step what you need to do so that you can have the confidence that you deserve and want when it comes to selling your home. And that’s really important. Not only can you have the confidence but you can have a fast sale and get top dollar. We’ve seen this happen time and time again. I always tell people this is 12 proven steps. This isn’t theory, this isn’t conjecture, if you get the book, read the book, you’ll be amazed at the success you have.
We’d love you naturally to use us but if you don’t that’s okay. Use that information, so when the time is right to sell, and I think right now still is the time to have the information so you can move forward and make it actually an enjoyable experience selling your home and that’s kind of what we believe. I’m passionate about real estate. I think selling your home can be enjoyable, once you have the information that you need in front of you to get the job done. So that’s really important.
In this first segment, I want to talk about, we talked about what we’re going to be talking later in the show but this first segment what I really wanted to talk about is, what is a contingency? And how it’s a normal thing when it comes to the sale in real estate, selling your home in real estate. A contingency is very simply, I think most sellers know this, even most buyers know that. It’s something has to happen for the buyer to move forward to purchase a house. That traditionally is going to mean that they need to sell their house or they have their house on the market whether it’s under contract or not under contract, being sold. Before they can be able to afford or be able to purchase your house, that action has to happen. Very, very, very common.
There are also other contingencies, I’m not going to dwell on too much, they’re built into the offer, there’s a finance contingency meaning is if you don’t as a buyer can’t prove that they can do the sale of your house, that’s a finance contingency, to it’s based on them being able to prove that. We’ve talked about that numerous times on the show about the difference in having a prequalification letter and a preapproval letter, the importance of that. Always getting the preapproval letter is always the best method to go with it. But that becomes really important in the sale but that is the contingency.
Also, the home inspection, that’s a built in contingency. If you can’t come to agreement on the house and hopefully there’s nothing major wrong, but if there is something major wrong, if that contingency isn’t met then guess what? The buyer doesn’t have to purchase your home.
With that said, what I’m going to talk about is before is the tradition what this is, is the house being sold, that the buyer needs to sell before they purchase your house. Every situation is different, every situation is unique. But to kind of give you an idea behind that is that you shouldn’t just blow off contingencies just because they have one. Again, many times the house may be under contract that the buyer has and they need to have their house sold.
That comes really into play, especially if you the seller have a 200, 300, $400,000 house it’s very likely that they’re going to have a house they need to sell. Ideally, it’s under contract and they have a closing date that’s going to match the same time that they purchase your home. And guess what, you very well may need to do the same thing if you have a $200,000 home and you’re looking to purchases a $400,000 home, many times you need to have your house sold before you can get approval to be able to buy the $400,000 home.
So that’s number one thing, it’s a very common thing. What you want to be very careful of is too many times that we see is agents have kind of a general rule. Don’t take contingencies, no matter what. Just have a complete sale with no contingencies, nothing, nothing to sell. Those are great when you have them, but they don’t come around very often. And we had a situation just recently where we had somebody that the seller had an offer come in, it was contingent on a sale of another house the buyer had.
The agent just flat out said don’t take contingency, your house is going to sell it’s only been on the market for three weeks, you can get one without a contingency. Unfortunately, three weeks more went by and three weeks more went by and basically we’re almost up to three months’ time, before another offer came in. The seller naturally would have been much better off to have taken that contingency potentially to make the deal go and be out of that house in one month versus being still in the house three months later.
That’s really important to understand, the contingencies are situational. That doesn’t mean you have to take the contingency, but it just means that you and your agent can have a conversation about it. We’ve seen situations where the house has been on the market for five months and the only offer that comes in is a contingency and they haven’t sold their house, the buyer.
In that situation it may be the best advice too is to take that contingency and ride out the situation. So it just really depends on what exactly the contingency is, what is the timeline, where are you at, what’s going on with it. Your agent should be able to give you some information about that so you can make a decision that works best for you.
With that said, as I said we’re going to be talking more about insurance. I have a special guest Joe Harnist from Harnist Insurance is going to be with me. In the meantime, how about getting that book. I think you’re going to enjoy it, make it a Christmas present for goodness sakes, the holidays are coming up. Give it to a friend, again it’s absolutely free. ReadySetSold.org not .com, ReadySetSold.org not .com, pick up the book. With that said,
Ready Set Sold with Bryan Vogt #24-01: Joe Harnist of Harnist Insurance and Pat Vecchio of The Violence Prevention Center of Southwestern Illinois: How contingencies are normal in the sale of a home
November 4, 2017