Buying
When navigating the rough seas of the current real estate market, you need a real estate professional with practical experience negotiating distressed sales. Over 70% of real estate sales in July 2010 were either a short sale or a bank-owned foreclosure (REO). This means that the bank was the ultimate decision maker in the price of the home and any concessions made to the buyer. Depending on your market, it is common to find yourself in a multiple offer situation, which can be a lengthy and extremely frustrating process. Can you afford to have an agent who "does real estate in their spare time"? Everyone has a favorite aunt or a neighbor in the "biz", but is that person the right person to help you negotiate the single largest financial and legal transaction that you may ever conduct?
At Merchants Realty & Loan Corp, real estate is our profession, not a hobby. Our agents have negotiated hundreds of short sales and foreclosed properties. They understand that presenting an FHA offer with 3.5% down is not always the most attractive offer to be reviewed by a bank, BUT they know how to present the offer the right way to get the most favorable results. Combined with a rock solid loan approval from our mortgage department, a Merchants Realty & Loan offer to purchase has a 75% better chance of being accepted than an offer from any other real estate firm.
Why is that?
At Merchants, both our real estate professionals and our mortgage professionals have a deep understanding of current market conditions and know exactly how to prepare the loan package and ultimately the offer to purchase real estate. Our loan process begins with an in depth analysis of the borrowers income, assets and credit. Merchants will only present an offer that has been through the underwriting process and has the underwriter's signature on the approval. This guarantees the seller and/or the bank that a Merchant's borrower can close as quickly as a cash buyer. Once the contract is accepted, only an appraisal is needed and the transaction can be prepared for closing. It is this unique process that separates Merchants from all competitors. Furthermore, you are not required to have perfect credit to obtain loan approval. The mortgage professionals at Merchants are experts at credit score optimization and with one phone call, can estimate the time it will take to obtain approval based on current credit scores regardless of how low the scores may be. This recent recession has left over 50% of Americans with mid to lower credit scores, many unjustly, and we feel there is real value add to assisting those folks with restoring their credit scores.
