Why Top Real Estate Agents Joined Keller Williams

The REAL Trends “The Thousand” featured 72 Keller Williams’ agent teams in its Top 250 ranking of real estate teams by transaction sides; those Keller Williams teams together represent 27,391 transactions. The 2015 listing also featured 36 Keller Williams’ agent teams in its Top 250 list of teams by volume, equating to more than $4.69 billion in sales. An additional twelve Keller Williams agent teams were similarly recognized in the average sales price-listing category for top teams.

So why are top real estate agents are with Keller Williams?

1. Cap system

Keller Williams Realty has a commission cap, which means that after you ”cap”, everything else you earn is yours. Often Top Real Estate Agents are a married couple team. If you have a married couple team and both are licensed agents and pay MLS fees, they would share one Cap. It means they would reach “cap” faster and earn 100% commission.

2. Profit Share, Build a Downline

Most of Top Real Estate Agents have his/her associates. When they joined Keller Williams office, associates would name their team leader as “Sponsor”, associates become “First Level”. If “Fist Level” is productive, hasn’t yet met the cap of what they’ll pay their Market Center, and the Market Center is profitable, a piece of that profit goes to the sponsors. So when Top Real Estate agents give their associate a lead, not only they can collect referral fee (or commission split) but also profit share. If associates refer someone who names them as their sponsor, they go to your “Second Level”. So the potential is exponential for Top Real Estate Agents or Broker (for example, Century 21 Carol Realty in San Diego joined Keller Williams San Diego Metro). Since profit share began in 1989, Keller Williams has shared more than half a billion dollars to it’s associates. In 2015, the company is tracking for it’s largest year to date, at nearly $130M shared. See more info.

3. Retirement Income

Once you have spent three years at Keller Williams, you secure your "downline" revenue for the rest of your life (and beyond), meaning you will continue to collect commissions on the agents you recruit to Keller Williams, even after you stop selling real estate. In fact, your heirs will continue to receive profit sharing checks even after you die. KW is the only national brokerage offering this type of generational financial security.

4. Training

Training fuels all of our success. But often times many Top Real Estate Agents do not have time to train their associates. At Keller Williams, they can guide new associates through Keller Williams training programs so new associates can get into production quickly and build their businesses. Providing education to associates is a core belief of Keller Williams. Training Magazine named the real estate giant the world’s No. 1 training organization across all industries.

JOIN KELLER WILLIAMS

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We are always available to answer your questions. In fact…we love doing it! Feel free to contact us. We look forward to helping you grow your real estate career.

100% Financing Home Loan in San Diego, Home Ownership Made Easier

For some borrowers, saving up 3% for a down payment is still a hurdle they can’t quite clear due to the rising rent (44.6% up from 2005, according to the San Diego County Apartment Association reports. CBRE projects rents to increase by more than 3 percent in each of the next three years, until slowing to 2.4 percent annually in 2020.)

However, we have teamed up with a Bank that has a new program… 100% Financing Home Loan in San Diego (Zero-percent down mortgage).

This program is to help low- and moderate-income borrowers become homeowners by helping to overcome one of the “most significant barriers” to home ownership, the down payment.

It allows qualifying borrowers to finance up to 100 percent of a home’s value, with the bank contributing up to $4,500 toward certain closing costs.

Under this 100% Financing Home Loan program there are no private mortgage insurance, or PMI, requirements with a home mortgage, which can easily add $150 or more each month to the typical home loan payment.

To qualify for the program, certain eligibility requirements must be met. Those eligibility requirements include, but are not limited to (1) the property must either be located in a low-to-moderate income census tract (https://www.ffiec.gov/geocode/), or (2) the applicants on the loan cannot have an income greater than 80% of the HUD median income for the area. A lender credit not to exceed $4,500 will be applied at the time of closing, after final underwriting and product eligibility has been confirmed. (3) Minimum credit score of 620.

Other benefits of the program:

• Borrowers can move into a new residence with as little as $500 of their own funds. Seller funds and cash gifts can be used to pay remaining closing costs and so-called “prepaids” — expenses such as taxes and insurance that must be paid at closing before they are technically due.
• The program offers flexible fixed-rate mortgage terms, with 30-, 25-, 20-, 15- and 10-year options available.
• No income limits apply when the property is located in a Low or Moderate income census tract.

In some cases, borrowers participating in the program will pay a monthly mortgage payment that is as much as or less than what they currently pay as renters. And that’s an important point: This program will be helping people who’ve already proven their ability to make that monthly payment.
Contact us for details and complete eligibility requirements.

Mark Kunce

Keller Williams San Diego -The My Home Team

Easing of mortgage lending standards: Housing Bubble or No Bubble

Fannie Mae's third quarter 2015 Mortgage Lender Sentiment Survey™ reveals that more lenders report easing of mortgage lending standards across all loan types. Great news for home buyers.

For example, recently Chase Bank eased the lending requirements for its jumbo mortgages, which tend to be loans in excess of $417,000 in many markets and $625,500 in more expensive areas. A potential buyer now only needs a credit score of 680 and a 15% down payment to qualify for a maximum loan amount of $3 million for a primary-residence home. Borrowers used to need a 740 score and put 20% down. By easing its standards, the bank is hoping to gain more customers.

California is by far the biggest lending state when it comes to jumbo mortgages—both in dollar amount and number of loans. More than half of Bank of America’s jumbo lending is originated and closed in California, and dollar volume from January through August 2015 was up 20% over a year ago.

Fannie Mae announced its new HomeReady mortgage that will replace MyCommunityMortgage, Fannie’s previous affordable lending product. The latest product is designed to help creditworthy borrowers with lower and moderate incomes access an affordable, sustainable mortgage.

Easier credit may sound like a recipe for an automatic rerun of the housing crisis. Some critics express concern over a new housing bubble. But it’s still a far cry from the heady pre-crisis days where lenders would often waive downpayments entirely and not bother checking borrowers’ claims regarding their credit-worthiness. Unlike the catastrophic housing bubble seen at the start of this century, home price frothiness today is not being fueled by free and easy mortgage credit.

Are you concerned over a new hosing bubble? Should Mortgage Lending Standards Ease?

(Real Story) Home Selling Tips: How to fight a low appraisal

We had one property in contract, and appraisal came $80,000 in lower than purchase price. Buyer who is a Real Estate agent insisted that our seller should reconsider the sale price based on the appraisal because all other buyers will run into the exact same situation.

Not so fast!

A low home appraisal can kill the sale of a home. Our story is a bit extreme but it may happen to you. So here are home selling tips to help you fight a low appraisal.

1. Check for mistakes
You and your real estate agent need to take time to read the appraisal report. Make sure the appraiser made no mistakes that might have led to a lower valuation. Make sure facts about the home are correct, including the number of rooms and bathrooms. Also look for omissions, such as a recent addition or significant improvement that should have increased the value of the home. And make sure the comparable-sales data is fair and accurate.

2. Look at homes in the same neighborhood
The homes used in the appraisal should be in the very same neighborhood as yours, especially if some of the surrounding neighborhoods are less desirable than yours.

3. Check into the school district
This can be a significant value changer for many neighborhoods. Homes in significantly better school districts are more desirable and generally priced higher than their counterparts in sub-par districts. Be sure all homes in the appraisal share the very same school district. This can make all the difference.

4. Ask the appraiser to reconsider
Once you have copies of all your comps and any other supporting documentation, you can present all that to the appraiser and ask them to reconsider their determination. This is usually done via the bank or mortgage company that originally ordered the appraisal.

5. Ask for a second appraiser
If the appraiser refuses to reconsider his determination, and you and your agent feel there is supporting evidence that would significantly alter the outcome of the appraisal value, you can send a demand letter to the bank or mortgage company to send out for a second appraisal.

6. Order a brand-new appraisal
Finally, if all else fails, you or your real estate agent can order your own appraisal. There is a cost for that and you would have to pay for it out-of-pocket. There is no guarantee that it will come in at a better value, but if you and your team feel confident that the value should be higher, than it may be worth the expense. You can also try to have the cost split between the seller and buyer — as it benefits both.

7. Meet in the middle
If buyer agrees that appraisal value is not reflecting property improvements etc., you can meet in the middle or somewhere in between. For example, if purchase price was $500,000 and appraisal came $480,000, you can lower the purchase sale to $490,000 then buyer needs to make up the difference in cash.

As for our case, buyer/agent was determined to purchase property closer to appraised value, which was $80,000 lower, and will not go along with a dispute of the appraisal. In fact we thought this could have been appraisal fraud because the buyer could flip this property without much of their money put into it.
So we discussed the situation to our seller, here is what we did…

8. Move on to new buyer
If you and your real estate agent are confident of your property value, and market value is not declining, cancel the contract and just move on.

Our team and sellers had confidence in the property valuation, especially after performing so many Broker Price Opinions (the estimated value of a property as determined by a real estate agent) for Bank owned properties and short sales for the lenders. So, we canceled the contract, withdrew the property from market for short time, re-listed property, sold for more than asking price. The appraisal came in at the purchase price. These two appraisal difference are whopping more than $90,000!!!

As always the seller should work with experienced realtor to handle these situations.

Home Buying tips: Request for repairs

My clients are purchasing a house in Mount Merritt, Rancho El Cajon, near the Mount Helix area. Even though the house was completely remodeled recently, we submitted a request for repairs (and got almost all of it accepted).

A very important part of a Real Estate transaction, but also a very misunderstood part of the transaction is the request for repairs also known as the RFR.
Buyers often think that by requesting repairs the seller is required to do these repairs. But this is not the case. The seller can decide to either do all the repairs, a part of the repairs, none of the repairs, or give some money or credit to the buyer to have repairs done.
Most of the request for repairs should only include things that involve Health and Safety issues, or differed maintenance that should have been kept up by the seller in the first place. Smoke alarms, GFCI outlets, problems that would cause an appraiser to have to come back and look at the property again should definitely be dealt with, hopefully prior to the appraisal.
Often times major things like foundation problems or something that couldn’t have been seen in the initial viewing of property could mean that you need to renegotiate the purchase price rather than actually do a request for repairs.
One thing I always do for a request for repairs is kind of make grocery list from the inspection report. Then have the buyer decide what is very important to them, and what’s not so important. Don’t get petty. Things that are natural wear and tear should probably not be considered. However, you may want to add a few things to the list that you may not care that much about but which give seller something to reject. This may make it easier to get a couple of the things you do want done.
As a listing agent I really do not want to see a request for repairs however, I believe a buyer’s agent should always submit one on behalf of their client.
If you have any questions, contact Mark Kunce at mark@sdmyhome.com or visit my website.

Video: Is Short Sale Relocation Assistance Money Taxable?

Short sale lenders are offering your relocation fees.
Is Short Sale relocation assistance Taxable?
San Diego Short Sale Specialist Mark Kunce will answer that question.
For more information, call 619-663-7139.

Video: 0 days on Market!?

San Diego Realtor Dan Becker and Mark Kunce talk about Real Estate Market in San Diego Metro Area.

Are you a savvy home buyer? Would you like to be?
Contact us, we can help! Give us a call 619-663-7139 or visit http://www.sdmyhome.com.