Lehigh Valley Real Estate - Tips 4 Homeowners, Buyers & Agents

Lehigh Valley Homes & Real Estate - The Home Inspection 4 Things Buyers and Sellers should know - When selling a home in Allentown, Bethlehem, Easton or the surrounding area..you should be prepared when it comes to the home inspection.

Tips for Lehigh Valley Buyers and Sellers about the Home Inspection.

This information will apply to you ONLY If you plan on working with a Real Estate Agent to buy and or sell a home in the Lehigh Valley PA area.  If you plan on selling your home as a For Sale By Owner..this may not apply to you. This ONLY applied to those who will be using the PA State regulated Residential Standard Agreement of sale for the Sale of Real Estate.

These Tips will help Buyer's Make stronger offers that will stand up against other competing offers and give Seller's ideas of key areas that they should consider with negotiating the offer they get on their home. In my opinion these Tips are beneficial for the buyer and the seller.

1) Buyers & Sellers - You have two options when negotiating the Home Inspection condition of the agreement of sale.

OPTION 1: Says "Mr. Seller I am a smart buyer and I am going to get a home inspection and no matter what the home inspection report says, I have the right to walk away and get my deposit money back"

OPTION 2: Says "Mr. Seller I am a smart buyer and I am going to get a home inspection and no matter what the home inspection report says, I will be forced to negotiate with you first BEFORE I walk away and get my deposit money back"

MY Opinion: Option 2 keeps everyone communicating and while the intentions of both sides is for the buyer to buy and the seller to sell...this is just a much better way to sign an agreement of sale with a home inspection condition in my eye's.

2) Buyer's & Seller's - When the offer is being negotiated be familar with the Home Inspection Exclusion Clause area of the Agreement of Sale...you should be keeping in mind if the home is being listed and sold with the roof needing to be replaced as an example or the buyer knows that the Furnance is at it's end of life and they plan on replacing it and this is the reason for their offer at lower than current market value...items that are not being considered to be conditioned on the home inspection should be written as an exclusion in the home inspection condition section.  This is really important when negotiating...because if a seller is going to give a buyer a large discount due to replacing the roof or doing any major mechanical items...then the buyer comes back and says..after the home inspection..well, the inspector says the roof needs to be replace...anything that is NOT in writing is NOT in writing.  Keeps everyone honest and also makes a buyer's offer stronger against other competing offers...because very few people use the exclusion field of the Agreement of Sale.  I have beat many competing offers due to adding exclusions to this area.

3) Buyer's & Seller's - You should know that there are a few different types of inspections that will be conducted the home for the buyer during the execution of the agreement of sale. Which can cause reasons for re-negotiations 2 to 3 times over before settlement.  There may will be the following inspections on the home depending on the Home Buyers Type of Mortgage, The inspection conditions requested by the buyer, Home Insurance Company selected, the Muncipality the home is located in.

Who may inspect the home which can cause a reason for future negotiations due to repair requests

1) The local municipality for a CO resale inspection
2) The Typical Home Inspector
3) The Mortgage Appraiser - Could be for FHA or Conventional apprasial
4) The Septic Inspector (unless it's public water)
5) A Water Test if it's well water (unless it's public water)
6) A Radon Inspector
7) The Homeowners Insurance Company
8) A Termite Inspection

All Inspections must be conducted within 15 days ACCEPT the appraisal. The appraisal needs to be completed prior to the Mortgage approval Date which is another deadline within the Agreement of Sale.

4) Buyers & Sellers - The Typical Home Inspection time Frame and Who should Attend? A Home Inspection for a home that is 2000 sq ft takes about 3 hours.  Seller's you really should not be home - Buyer's you should be there ...not only to learn about your new home, but to make sure the inspector is doing what he is suppose to be doing and I even believe the Buyer Agent should also be present just in case there are issues ...so everyone can get a visual of the problem and negotiations can be conducted in a clearer and more professional manner.

Other Lehigh Valley Real Estate and Home Buying and Selling Questions
10 Top Home Buyer Questions
Top 5 Lehigh Valley Seller Questions
What is a buyers Agent?
10 Things you should know about Buying a Foreclosure

* Lehigh Valley Homes & Real Estate - The Home Inspection 4 Things Buyers & Sellers should Know* Moriah Martin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License

Hello and Thank you for visiting my Vlog (Video Blog)

The home Inspection??? This is actually almost a mandatory item for 99.9% of my Residential Home Buyer's.  But, this condition (Condition defined: something you can get OUT of the home agreement over and get your money back) is very important.  The way it is written is also VERY IMPORTANT.  How you make agree to write the details of this condition can MAKE OR BRAKE the deal for you....in getting your offer accepted.

I have had many Seller's Agents tell me....The offer was accepted mostly due to the way the inspection condition and/or offer was presented.  As you where the most prepared and organized when presenting your offer. 

NOW, I know that may sound ridiculous...but, it would surprise you to know the amount of Active Real Estate agents both FULL Time and PART Time who just do not take this serious!  I am not sure if it is because they are in this career and just forgot What it is like to personally go through the Home Buying Process....I assure you..that I will be compassionate about this and hold your hand through the entire process...

I am not afraid of Work.....it takes much more work to do things the way I do...but, As they say, There is a right way and a wrong way to conduct business! You decide!

I hope this information has helped you with the purchase of your next home.

We help Buyer's ONLY!

A NEW Prospective in Helping Buyer's: We will NOT Tell you what you want to hear, We will Tell YOU the TRUTH!

Additional Online Resources

How & When do I get Pre-Qualified?

Making an offer on a home, what to consider

Home Inspection Information online (American Society of Home Inspectors)

Virtual Home Inspection (What does a Home Inspection involve?)

FAQ's About Home Inspections

Links to Consumer Protection Information

VIEW What it would look like if you let me help you with your Home Search.

PLEASE REPORT TYPOS: Comments and suggestions are welcome and appreciated.

Hello and Thank you for Visting my Vlog (Video Blog)

So, This subject is about Presenting your Home Offer.  We help Buyer's Only!

A New Prospective on Helping Buyer's...."We will not TELL you what you want to HEAR, We will Tell YOU the TRUTH!"

Yeah, Before I was involved in Real Estate as a Full Time career I would have thought...Well, what the heck do you mean?  Presenting your home Offer?  You just give it to the Seller!!! DUH!

NOPE, NO WAY! Not even close! 

I am trying really hard to keep my video's 5 mins and less...but, due to the amount of information needed to explain the important process of Buying a Home and all thing areas that are so important....they all kinda roll together to make a perfect fitting puzzel...I must explain how to put the puzzel together...and If I am going to give you the TRUTH and ALL the facts...well, my video's just might be a little longer than 5 mins.

This is how I see it!  What kind of time would you put on getting the home of your dreams and being so pleased with the Real Estate Agent you selected to provide you with the guidance in this process....A Real Estate Agent you would call your Buyer Agent for LIFE? 

Yeah...WELL, That is my goal...!  So, please sit back and let me guide you through this step of Presenting YOUR home offer!

I hope this information was helpful in the future purchase of your next home.

Additional Online Resources

Making an offer on a home, what to consider

Moriah's Buyer Agent Real Estate Services, FREE??!!

Seller's Property Disclosure Statement, Why should a Buyer care?

PLEASE REPORT TYPO'S, comments & suggestions welcomed and appreciated.

Email Moriah for Personalized Help and Services.

Lehigh Valley Real Estate can be very complicated and if you do not have the right guidance when Buying a Lehigh Valley Home the experience can be very frustrating and you may feel like you are not in control. That is the worst feeling, as you are the boss! You are the one paying for the home, Right?! Well..

The following information will help you learn about the important points of making an offer on a Lehigh Valley home.   

This discussion of the Agreement of Sale actually covers the entire state of Pa, but I only service the Lehigh Valley Real Estate area and I do not know what other markets are like or what should be covered in those areas.

Okay, there are so many things you will need to consider when just thinking about making an offer on a home in the Lehigh Valley.  So, what I am doing trying to do is keep things as simple as possible by taking small pieces at a time...and only talk about areas in the Agreement of sale that you will need to make decisions on. I hope that makes sense!

I feel it is better to become familar with these topics BEFORE you get to the table to sign an offer on a Lehigh Valley Home.

Let's beginning with What things you should consider.

It might be helpful to some Lehigh Valley Real Estate Home Buyers to View the PA Agreement of Sale.

Copyright © 2009 Moriah Martin RE/MAX real estate All Rights Reserved *Lehigh Valley Real Estate & Homes -  Making An offer on a Home, What to consider*