FSBO Question about Buyer

[Andrew Yu]

I do FSBO to sell my properties to save listing agent commission. Sometimes there's buyer agent involved. I know lots of times even when buyers have per-approved letters, they don't mean much. So I'm cautious about getting into contract with buyers on loan contingency because if it falls thru, I got relist on the market. What's something that I can do to make sure buyers have very high probability of closing? I don't want to step on the toes of buyer agent, asking questions that make them feel they don't do their job well of bringing good buyers or questions that could be total buyer's privacy.

[Irene Nash]

@Andrew Yu, actually I should have been more clear. Based on what my lenders have told me here in WA:

- If they've passed Desktop Underwriting they are actually "pre-approved" because they've submitted their credit, income and asset info and it has been run through the system.

- If their info has also been reviewed and approved by a human underwriter (not the mortgage broker, an actual underwriter) then we refer to them as being "fully underwritten" . However, this is nowhere near as common and I wouldn't expect buyers to show up like that, it takes more legwork on the part of the lender for a potential contract that doesn't even exist yet. In very competitive markets as has been the case in the Seattle area we do try to get our buyers who need financing fully underwritten because of bidding wars and going up against cash buyers, etc., but it's definitely not the norm in many parts of the country and not all lenders are excited about doing it or have time to do it before the offer.

What Taylor and I were saying to look out for is when buyers have a letter (some lenders may say pre-qualified or pre-approved, so don't go by the letter necessarily) that doesn't specify that their info has been received and reviewed and approved (run through DU), because lenders will also sometimes just get the buyer's info verbally and issue a letter 'subject to review' of income, credit and asset info. That's the weakest scenario. (Doesn't mean buyers don't qualify, you just don't know if they do or not.)

That's why it really is always worthwhile calling the mortgage person and finding our for sure unless it is clearly stated in the letter. And sometimes the letter uses boilerplate language that sounds like 'subject to review' and actually when you talk to the mortgage person you find out all the info has been submitted and run through DU.

I hope this helps, good luck.