Top Ten Things to Know about Tucson Real Estate – Inspections and Negotiations

September 1, 2010

And the last in our series of the top 10 things to know about Tucson real estate – Inspections and Negotiations!

Everything in real estate is written, and nothing is an agreement until all parties have signed and delivered the contract to the other. In Tucson, we use a contract provided to us by the Arizona Association of Realtors, so that we’re all using the same form and the same methods. I know some states do negotiations and any repairs differently, so let’s go over the general process here in Tucson.

There’s actually two rounds of negotiations when you buy a home here in Tucson. The first is the initial round, where the price and terms are hammered out. The buyer will propose a price, a close date, an inspection length, the terms of financing, who pays for what costs, and all the other terms and submit it to the seller. The seller can accept, reject, or counter that offer. And that goes back and forth until either you both agree, or until one of you says no and walks away.

Once everyone agrees and signs, typically, the buyer goes through an inspection period. The contract usually says 10 days, I like to write in 15 days when I represent buyers. In that interval, the buyer conducts all kinds of inspections to the property, gets a set of disclosures from the seller, and generally finds out everything they want to about the condition of the property.

Inspections are at the cost of the buyer – that’s what you pay to mitigate the risk of buying a lemon! The seller has to have the property available to the buyer, with utilities on, and generally stays out of the way so the buyer can have a thorough look-see.

Then there’s a second round of negotiations. When a buyer is at the end of their inspection period, or earlier if they’re ready, they’ll submit a repair request to the seller. This request actually may have two kinds of requests – those the seller *has* to fix and those the buyer *wants* them to fix. But that’s a more complex conversation, best saved for you and your agent based on the particulars of your individual contract.

So the seller gets this repair request and they have a time interval (usually 5 days) to respond. They can agree to fix everything, they can say they’ll do nothing, or they can counter that repair request in any manner. Once the Seller responds, the decision goes back to the Buyer. According to most contracts, the buyer can pretty much either take it or leave it. Which isn’t to say further negotiation can’t go on, it just isn’t described in the contract.

If the buyer and seller agree on repairs, then congratulations! There’s probably still some loan processing left, and probably a couple weeks left before closing, but you’ve made it through a huge hurdle and are a whole lot closer to completing the transaction.

And that’s how negotiations and repairs work for Tucson homes!

Summary of the Top Ten Things to Know about Tucson Real Estate so Far:

Posted by Kelley Koehler | Filed Under Top Ten, Tucson Homes Explained | Leave a Comment

Top Ten Most Embarrassing Moments as a Realtor

August 24, 2007

Okay, to date, I can only think of five, so feel free to add your own. I think every real estate agent has a couple of these stories, and they always fall into two general categories: nudity and keys/locks. If you don’t have these stories, and you’re an agent, you just haven’t been in the business long enough.

1. I had just listed a home in a remote subdivision and was previewing a new listing in the area. Trying to lock up and leave, the front door key become stuck in the lock, and for the life of me, I couldn’t get it out. I couldn’t leave the key in the lock as you could just turn it and enter the house, but the stupid thing wouldn’t pull out of the lock. The owner was an hour away, and the listing agent was out of town. I gave myself a blister on my finger trying to get that stupid key out for 20 minutes before I called my client in despair. Who of course got it out in about 10 seconds.

2. Walking in on someone in the shower while showing a house. In all fairness, I had made a courtesy call as instructed, and had rang the doorbell, knocked on the door, and yelled hello when we entered. We were on the first floor of the house maybe 5 minutes before we went upstairs, had an awkward person-in-the-shower-incident, and made a hasty retreat. In retrospect, the pants and shirt lying on the stairs to the second floor should probably have tipped us off.

3. Thinking I dropped a house key in a wash by a house I was looking at with some buyers, searching with them for it for 15 minutes, and eventually finding it in the bottom of my purse. Hey, they really ought to make women’s clothing with pockets. The small-handed population has trouble holding onto a key, a key container, the keysafe opener, and a listing printout all at the same time while opening a door, answering questions, and trying to keep the owner’s cat from escaping. Especially when said key and key container are about 473 degrees Fahrenheit. Or if it’s a big cat.

4. Realizing an hour into my first open house that the seam on the back of my pants had split open from waist to <ahem>, and not knowing how long the pants had been that way with all the open house visitors not telling me.

5. I noticed a somewhat “personal” piece of photography artwork in a bedroom as I was showing a house, and hey, I’m only human. It made me giggle. My somewhat conservative buyer hadn’t noticed the (huge 3 foot by 5 foot) picture, thought I was laughing at him for unknown reasons, and demanded I tell him what was so funny. In front of his young family, and still in front of the picture. I managed to at least get them out of the room before I let him on to what was on the wall. We all had a little laugh, but the kids were quickly ushered outside.

tags: embarrassing moments, tucson real estate

Posted by Kelley Koehler | Filed Under Top Ten | 4 Comments

Top Ten Ways To Know The Tucson Monsoon Has Arrived

August 10, 2007

In no particular order:

1. You don sunglasses, head out to the car, and as soon as you get in, the lenses fog.

2. The media recaps the stupid motorist law and

3. The weather stories lead the 10 o’clock news.

4. Weekly flash flood warnings, if not daily.

5. Unprecedented weed growth in the yard, followed by a fast blooming of the ocotillo and a rejuvenation of the I-thought-that-was-dead-eucalyptus tree.

6. Flip flops become “work appropriate” footwear.

7. You find yourself racing down the freeway, eyeing the black storm cloud in the rearview, trying to get home before the storm catches you.

8. Tucson Monsoon pictures proliferate on flickr.

9. All the rivers actually have water in them, as well as the washes, if only for a few days at a time.

10. Your open house gets rained out. Also, picking up open house signs in the rain and mud in heels? No fun.

Monsoon actually means “season,” so calling it “monsoon season” is redundant. Technically, the monsoon starts when we have three days in a row with a dew point above 54 degrees. Tucson gets most of it’s rain for the year in July and August. We get a little rainy season in the winter, but nothing like the Monsoon. These huge storms rip across the city, usually from Southeast to Northwest, with crazy lightning, just very violent. Quite spectacular, if you’re into the storm watching.

Since the ground is fairly saturated with water, all the bugs are out, which brings out the lizards. Brown Dog is an avid hunter of lizards.

Me, I’ve got some weeding to do.

tags: monsoon, top ten, tucson real estate

Posted by Kelley Koehler | Filed Under About Tucson, Top Ten | 1 Comment

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