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Hi, I'm Ella Gurfinkel, your host of the AskElla Show and senior loan officer at Fairway Independent Mortgage. On my podcast, I cut through the noise to bring you honest conversations about real estate, mortgages, and financial planning.
I interview industry experts to tackle everything from homebuying basics to complex topics like reverse mortgages, trusts, and market trends. With decades of experience, I'm passionate about dispelling myths and providing clear, actionable advice.
Whether you're buying your first home, refinancing, or planning for retirement, I'm here to help you make informed decisions. Join me for straightforward talk about real estate and beyond!
if you're a real estate agent working with buyers in today's market your buyers aren't just competing with other families they're up against cash investors escalation clauses and wave contingencies i'm Ella Geringle and after helping over 2,000 families secure homes and hot markets I'm sharing the five financing tactics that actually work to win bidding wars without your clients overpaying or taking dangerous risks
let's talk about how team effort can get your buyer in a competing situation to get selected as the winner against other multiple bids all of us know that standard pre-approvals are basically worthless in the bidding war here is what we do different we can complete full underwriting upfront with a TBD property address or better yet we can actually provide a cash guarantee with our pre-approvals this means that your buyer is essentially approved not just preapproved and with a cash guarantee and all they need is a property that appraises effectively it helps you compete against cash offers include this language in your offer buyer financing has received preliminary underwriting approval pending only property appraisal the listing agents know what this means your deal won't fall apart a cash guarantee equates your buyer's offer to basically a cash offer where Fairway will guarantee that either we buy the property if the financing falls through or we'll pay the seller $10,000 for not following through on our commitment to finance the buyer another thing to consider is appraisal gap guarantees do they protect the buyer Instead of waving the appraisal contingency completely structure a capp appraisal gap guarantee here is an example of what you could say buyer agrees to cover any appraisal shortfall up to x amount of dollars with proof of funds attached the key is setting the right cap i've heard as much as 5% of the purchase price maximum being recommended and having the cash reserve documented upfront will that set your buyers apart from everybody else Potentially yes and no I'm not telling you how to do your job now here is something else to consider as another strategy the two-1 buy down strategy a 21 buy down lets your buyer get a rate that's 2% lower in year 1 1% lower in year two and then returns to the note rate the beauty is the seller can pay for this through concessions and here's the calculator that shows exactly how much this costs and saves for a $400,000 loan at 7% a 21 buy down costs about $8,000 but saves your buyer $335 per month in year 1 and $170 in year two now include this in your offer to show sellers you're serious buyer requests seller credit of X amount of dollars for the 21 temporary buy down resulting in lower payment and higher qualification amount close faster than your competitors we can close in as little as 15 days 20 one day is totally normal without rush fees by using our parallel processing system this means ordering appraisal on day one and having underwriting review the file before all the documents are in specify the quick close in your offer lender has confirmed let's say 18-day close capability with no additional fees to either party here is another option the non-contingent financing with safety nets instead of waving financing contingencies completely we can use this hybrid approach financing contingency limited to 7 days for preliminary approval only with earnest money becoming non-refundable thereafter except for appraisal or title issues this gives sellers the confidence of a nearly non-contingent offer while still protecting your buyer from major issues now which one of these five strategies would help your current buyers the most I would love to see your comments below or send me a DM with your situation and I'll send you the specific language to include in your next offer and if you're working with a buyer right now who's lost out on multiple offers book a 15-minute strategy call with me the link is in the description and let's get them into a home without breaking their budget