When selling a home, the biggest competition is New Home Builders. In the past, they have offered thousands of dollars worth of incentives to buyers that inventory homes on the market could not compete with. Now the tables are turning. As of Jan. 16th RESPA (Federal Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act) laws will be changing. There will soon be new RESPA Limitations on Homebuilder Incentives and this will require builders to change their contracts and current procedures. This is good news if you are planning to sell your home in the new year. In the past it has been common for builders to offer incentives to buyers so that they would use their preferred title and mortgage companies. This allowed builders to line their wallets with thousands of consumer dollars per contract on homes sold. Thanks to new RESPA Guidelines they can be criminally prosecuted for such acts.
You can read more about it at http://www.hud.gov/offices/hsg/sfh/res/finalrule.pdf.
