WHAT IS EARNEST MONEY? HOW DO I GET IT BACK IF THERE IS A DISPUTE?
- If your offer is accepted, the earnest money becomes part of your down payment or closing costs
- If the offer is rejected, your money is returned to you
- If you back out of a deal, you may forfeit the entire amount
- If either party refuses to execute the nessecary documents required to release the earnest money (See NRS645a.175 3.(a) very interesting )
*** NRS 645A.175 Duty to execute documents necessary to release money deposited in escrow; exception for good faith disputes; recovery of damages for failure to execute; award of attorney’s fees.
1. Except as otherwise provided in subsection 2 or in the escrow agreement between the parties and the holder of the escrow, upon the close of an escrow for the sale of real property or on the date the escrow is scheduled to close if it has not closed, each party shall execute the documents necessary to release the money deposited in the escrow.
2. A party may refuse to execute a document necessary to release the money deposited in the escrow only if a good faith dispute exists concerning that money.
3. Except as otherwise provided in NRS 645.8701 to 645.8811, inclusive, if a party refuses to execute a document necessary to release the money deposited in the escrow within 30 days after the holder of the escrow makes a written request for the execution, the party injured by the failure of the other party to execute the document may collect from that party:
(a) Actual damages of not less than $100 nor more than 1 percent of the purchase price of the real property for which the money was deposited in the escrow, whichever is greater;
(b) The money deposited in the escrow which was not held to resolve a good faith dispute concerning the sale of the property; and
(c) A reasonable attorney’s fee.
(Added to NRS by 1995, 1527; A 1999, 1180)
The Phone Every Real Estate Agent Should Buy!
The Touch Pro2 offers seamless integrated features that enable you to stay connected, informed, and in control with one touch. Put people at the center of your communication access all their calls, SMS, emails, and even status updates right from their contact card. Windows Mobile lets you manage your Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents on the go. With
Google Analytics - Must Have!!!
Once you have created an account, you can then sign up for Google Analytics. Just a few more steps…and you will be done!
Once signed up a small snippet of code wil be displayed. You will need to copy the account number within this script of code and insert it into the appropriate place in your admin center…which will activate it.
After this process is completed, you will be able to log into your Google Analytics account from any Web browser and see up-to-the-minute real time statistics on everything you could ever want to know about your site visitors and their behavior. All kinds of charts and graphs and information.
This powerful Web-based statistics package was once a stand alone product and cost $100’s/month before Google bought it awhile back, and now makes it available to anyone for free.
Website statistics are highly useful if you have the ability to a) understand what they are saying about your site’s ability or lack of ability to convert visitors to clients, and b) they can be used to help create a strategic plan of action.
Windermere New Email System Info
Windermere Email Accounts will be migrated on an individual basis.
We will not be migrating whole offices at a time.
We will no longer be publishing a schedule of associates with their migration date. All associates will receive at least 2 notifications prior to migration with notice about their upcoming migration.
Email is consistently cited as the most important tool you use as part of your business. In order to ensure that you have the most current and scalable email, Windermere will be migrating our current webmail email system to an upgraded system offering you the advanced features you need to succeed in today's market.What improvements come with the new system?
The new system is vastly superior to the current Windermere email system. Some of the upgraded features include:
1. Access email anytime, anywhere - from the office, at home or on the road.
2. Email, contacts, calendars and tasks can be automatically synchronized between the web and Outlook. Changes made at one location, are available in all.
3. Increased storage capacity equal to 10GB per account (compared to 50MB with our current vendor).
4. Share your calendar with other associates using the new system.
5. Mobile synching with BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and iPhone* at no extra charge.
Short Sale Lender Submission & Processing Guide for Windermere Agents
Many Mortgage Companies and Servicing Institutions have their own unique requirements when it comes to Short Sale requests from borrowers. Select from the list below to see the general requirements of the lender/ servicer.
We have included downloadable forms and documents for those lender or servicers that require special forms and documents to be completed by the borrower. Certain of the forms and documents we have available have been scanned and the quality of the image may not be of good quality.
www.mresolution.com
Mortgage Resolution Services, Inc. provides a full range of services to the real estate community, all designed to support the efforts of brokers and agents working with homeowners overburdened with mortgage debt. As market conditions become more challenging and mortgage delinquencies increase, Mortgage Resolution Services, Inc. can help. By providing education, coaching and a comprehensive short sale processing service, Mortgage Resolution Services, Inc. is ready to help real estate professionals who are seeking to adjust their business plan to account for current market conditions.
As pre-foreclosure and foreclosure numbers continue to run at very high levels, we can show you how to find homeowners who need your help.
For those of you who would like to keep in touch with your "regular" real estate business and who want to avoid getting gobbled up by the demands of handling the processing of short sale files we have a solution. Mortgage Resolution Services, Inc. can handle the short sale processing and negotiating tasks on your short sale files.
You keep the client, you take care of the real estate side of the transaction and we will do the heavy lifting with the mortgage lenders and their loss mitigation departments.
Even before you ever take this listing, we can let you know if you have a short sale transaction that will likely be approved.
As an agent all you have to sell is your time and your expertise. Mortgage Resolution Services, Inc. can help by confirming you have an approvable short sale so you don't waste time on a transaction that will likely be declined and we can remove the day-to-day burden of chasing down loss mitigators.
Listen Up Las Vegas... Use your $8,000 Tax Credit as Your Down Payment!
National Association of Realtors Applauds Use of First Time Homebuyer Tax Credit as Real Estate Down payment
Use $8,000 Tax Credit as Real Estate Down Payment. National Association of Realtors is Optimistic
By Sylvia Cochran
Today the National Association of Realtors comments on the change in the rules that allows the $8,000 tax credit to be used as a down payment for a real estate purchase.
$8,000 Tax Credit May Be Used For Real Estate Down Payment
The good news the National Association of Realtors was clamoring for, came in the form of an announcement from Shaun Donovan of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The association's website reports that the FHA has given the green light to lenders for a change in the real estate down payment rules.
The National Association of Realtors states that the $8,000 tax credit that home buyers would normally be able to apply for during their tax preparation may now actually be applied toward the down payment of the real estate purchase. A specially designed loan vehicle "pays forward" the tax credit and thus the real estate buyer borrows the funds for the down payment.
In the past, the use of borrowed funds for a real estate transaction was considered an unacceptable practice. Today, it might be the little extra nudge otherwise qualified real estate buyers require to make their dream of homeownership a reality.
First Time Homebuyer Tax Credit as Real Estate Down Payment is Not a New Idea
The US News Home Front Blog reported that already in January of this year, the state of Missouri was allowing the first time homebuyer tax credit to be turned into a down payment on a piece of real estate. The Missouri Housing Development Commission (MHDC) discovered a way of writing a second loan of up to 6% of the home purchase price, which would then later on be paid off with the first time homebuyer tax credit that is valued at 10% of the purchase price.
Consumers who repay the down payment loan will not be charged interest but instead only a processing fee. Those who fail to repay when they receive the first time homebuyer tax credit see their down payment loan funneled into a 10 year loan that is repaid - with interest - over a decade.
Is it time for the National Association of Realtors to rejoice nationwide?
Sources
http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stories/2009/05/11/daily37.html; http://www.realtor.org/press_room/news_releases/2009/05/re_summit?lid=ronav0019; http://www.usnews.com/blogs/the-home-front/2009/03/30/the-first-time-home-buyer-tax-credit-and-your-down-payment.html
More resources
http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stories/2009/05/11/daily37.html
