Closing a For-Sale By Owner Deal?

Question

Hi All,

Found a property for sale by owner. Listed 20K under the deemed appraisal value which seems true based off the market. I reached out to dig deeper as it had been listed for an extended period of time, and they dropped that down 17K more to sell ASAP. I am working on getting motivation for selling. Looks like has tenants that are "lifers", not motivation to move, but don't have a lease and can be removed. So a couple questions:

1) how does closing an off-market deal differ from an MLS listing? Like how does the communication go, they don't have an agent, do I still use my agent, etc? Any feedback on this is appreciated.

2) I will be using a 5% owner occupied loan. How would this work buying a property that is current occupied? Is there anything else I should be aware of for this situation?

Thank you in advance!

Michael Dumler · Answer

@Christopher Murphy your agent will negotiate directly with the seller. The only major difference within the transaction is that you will more likely then not pay for your agent's commission, as opposed to the seller covering commission fees at closing. Therefore, you need to run your numbers and reanalyze including all closing costs plus your agent's commission on top of that. In the offer, you need to include a stipulation addressing for the property to be delivered vacant by closing. Your lender is not going to approve the loan when the property is still tenant occupied. If I had to assume, the seller is listing the property below market due to the fact that the tenant's have not been paying rent. Hope this helps!

Closing a For-Sale By Owner Deal?

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