An interesting point that I didn't mention was that the first buyer was going to buy the home for $595,000.  The second buyer didn't see the home and get their loan pre-approval until the day that I change the status to back-up offer on MLS so they thought that they lost the home.  Then when I changed the status to active on MLS when the first buyer cancelled escrow, the second buyer agent contacted me the same day letting me know that he was going to be submitting a full priced offer.  So other than closing later, it worked out for the best for the seller.

Quote from: Dr. CA Real Estate on December 05, 2019, 03:01:13 PM

Never ceases to amaze me how often people using current listing prices instead of actual closing prices for comparables.

Since homes usually sell around 95% of list price, if everyone used the closing price to list at, wouldn’t it create a downward spiral? 

Home 1: Lists at $100, closes for $95
Home 2: Lists at $95, closes for $90.25
Home 3: Lists at $90.25, closes at $85.74
And so on...

Market forces prevent that

Since the cost is zero and you do not have a prepayment penalty to re-refinance through another company, what harm is there to proceed? Yes, your credit score will drop with new debt, but Owning's rates assume a 740 FICO. If you're in the 780s, new debt won't kneecap your score by 40-50 points for the next lender should rates come down further. Remember, if you're paying $2,000 per month, and $1,000 of that payment is interest, every month you wait is a $1,000 cost you could have reduced significantly with a no cost refi.

I get the question all the time "Why aren't banks giving me the same rate as Owning, Rocket Mortgage, AIM Loans etc?". They can - but it takes some strategic thinking, documentation, and some fact checking first.

Want that 3.50 30 fixed No Closing Cost refi Owning is offering? Well, are you at 60% LTV? Hmmm... Are you in a Single Family Home? No? How about your loan? Is it below $300,000? If not, then the terms will be different than what the ad says. The details are in the disclosure pages here:

https://www.owning.com/disclosure.html

or here:

https://www.owning.com/termsandconditions.html

I'm not picking on Owning, just pointing out that the Advertised Terms are not always the Final Terms you're going to get. Let's say you do fall into their pricing categories but you don't want your loan to get sold, and sold, and sold again. You have a certain comfort level with your Bank/Credit Union/Financial Institution and prefer to keep it with them. Their rate is not 3.5% but 3.875%. You've been a great customer over the years and keep $$$ with the bank, but just can't get the rate you want. Here's a couple reasons why you don't get that deal with the first call to your Bank:

If the Lending Officer gives Jenny Johnson a 3.5 rate because they want to land the deal, OK. If Sam Smith calls in 5 minutes later and wants the 3.5 rate that Jenny Johnson just got since their situation is the same (...it never is BTW) and the Bank does not give Sam Smith the deal, that's a Fair Lending issue. Bank's are sued often for discrimination, and plenty of barriers are put up so that the visible quoted rate data from a Bank is as generic and safe as possible, avoiding the chance for litigation to occur. Second, Banks have infrastructure - too much of it in some ways - bloating their cost of doing business. The rates quoted by some Banks reflect their legacy financial issues, brick and mortar branch costs, and the expense of keeping up with regulations. Smaller companies do not have these same costs and are able to push profit margins far below what a Big Bank can. Still, Big Banks need to make mortgages to survive and build customer relationships that extend beyond the loan itself. So what will allow a Bank to bring their pricing in line with others, while remaining on the good side of regulators?

Sam Smith should have in hand a written quote from another company when asking for a discount. Banks can offer deeply discounted terms to match the other sides written deal. Competitively Matching is allowable. In many cases a quote from Lender 1 might require impounds for that rate. Your Bank might match the rate and forgo the impound account. Once that "best deal" is in writing from a low cost provider, you could further sweeten the deal by bringing assets to the Bank, something that an Owning, Guaranteed Rate, or Quicken Loans cannot offer.

The path of least resistance is to take the easier deal. No question about that. Smaller firms with lower costs and nimble service can get the job done for you. If that easier deal however requires an impound account, is going to lead to your loan getting sold, has loan to value restrictions, or is unable to improve your loan terms based on a relationship, then getting a written offer first to set the baseline loan terms is the best way to get your local bank to price a loan competitively.

At present the most competitive fixed rate offers (PS - offers are not "locked rate or deliverable terms") are from Owning, Fremont Bank, Ally Bank, and many of the Zillow / BankRate online providers.  Competitive ARM quotes and the delivery thereof are a whole other post to come at a later time.

My .02c

Never ceases to amaze me how often people using current listing prices instead of actual closing prices for comparables.

Since homes usually sell around 95% of list price, if everyone used the closing price to list at, wouldn’t it create a downward spiral? 

Home 1: Lists at $100, closes for $95
Home 2: Lists at $95, closes for $90.25
Home 3: Lists at $90.25, closes at $85.74
And so on...

I don’t think West Irvine was a TIC hood.