Uh oh… there is a huge surge in people wanting to attend law school!
A few years ago, I blogged about “Unusual Recession Indicators.” These include increased lipstick sales, falling tip %’s, declining men’s underwear sales, more stolen pets, and more.
But – there is one that I missed, illuminated in this post: Law School Admission Test applications surged from 19,000 last year to 32,000 this year! We’re doomed!!
In other words, when there are no other job opportunities, there is always law school… 😊
11th-Hour Price Reductions: Beware!
This is a topic I haven’t covered in years, but I should have.
In softer markets, we tend to see a lot more 11th-hour price reductions or contract changes.
Agents and buyers often assume that contract changes benefiting the buyer will not cause delays.
But – if the changes are made after loan documents are drawn, we often must redraw loan documents – and that can delay closings by a day or more (particularly if we have to re-disclose loan terms too).
We also sometimes have to go back to underwriting to get the new structure approved – again delaying closings.
But the bigger risk comes from re-running our automated underwriting systems for Fannie and Freddie (DU and LP).
Ironically and amazingly, we sometimes LOSE our “appraisal waiver” when we get price reductions (for reasons nobody understands), requiring us to order an appraisal at the 11th-hour – and that will really delay a closing.
This has happened to us twice in recent months, in fact, and in both cases, we restructured the transactions to increase the seller credits instead of reducing the price, saving our appraisal waiver.
The big takeaway for agents is this: Apprise your lender of your potential contract changes, especially if they are at the 11th-hour. Even small changes can cause big delays.
