In Delaware, the Buyer chooses the settlement attorney and the attorney represents the Buyer, not the Seller. If the Seller wishes to retain their own counsel, they may do so, but you should not give up your right to representation by your own attorney
In new construction, it has become common practice for some builders to form a relationship with one specific law firm. They try to get anyone buying one of their homes to use that law firm for their settlements. Occasionally, there appears to be a somewhat lower rate for some services, but at what cost?
What is it worth to be represented by someone with loyalty to only one party – you, the Buyer? If you plan to live in this new home for 20 or 30 years, what is the impact of a few hundred dollars on your future?
The same is true of mortgage companies, but that can be a more costly proposition until the government finally changes the laws. The large national builders have their own mortgage company divisions and many require you to use their in-house lender in order to take advantage of any special pricing or incentives. For example, if the builder is offering “50% off upgrades”, you can only receive that discount if you either pay cash or use the builder’s own lender to finance your purchase. Guess that tells you how much profit there is in mortgage lending, even at today’s low rates. With typical 30 year financing on new homes, even a small profit on a community full of financed homes adds up over time. (more…)

Once a year,  Realtors in Sussex County gather to auction “baskets” of wonderful goodies to raise money for families this holiday season. All of the funds from this event go to a big day of shopping for presents for 100s of families throughout southern Delaware. This year, the selection of items and baskets ranged from wonderful art work to trips, vacations and golf packages. Join us and see how much fun we had!

In this housing market, it’s natural for a buyer to want to get the absolute best deal. We are bombarded by news of the large foreclosure problem and the talking heads reading the news rarely mention “all real estate is local” and the statistics they are quoting are national averages. But, if you look, there are short sales and foreclosed properties in every market. The question is, are they the best deal for you?

Let’s talk about short sales first. A house listed as a short sale means quite simply that the seller owes one or more banks more money than the house is worth in today’s market. It has nothing to do with the buyer and there are no protections built into the process.  One of my favorite settlement attorneys explained it this way:

If you make an offer on a short sale and the seller accepts the offer, do you have a contract? Yes, but it has an unusual contingency – it is subject to approval by a 3rd Party, the Bank. The buyer has almost no control over the transaction and may never buy the property. The buyer may have to spend money for an inspection and other fees and the short sale lender may come back with changes to the contract after months. The dates in the original contract mean nothing to the bank – they just don’t care. (more…)