Imagine your home is on the market for sale. You have worked extremely hard at making sure your home is the perfect property. Your family has staged the home with just the right decorations, the carpet have been professionally cleaned, the front and backyard landscaping has been manicured, and you even washed all of the windows of your home YOURSELF :)

Long car rides on the weekend to step out of your home temporarily as buyers go through your home, you leave the home so that they can be undisturbed while viewing the property. Then the big day comes and the full price offer with no closing costs requested is received on your real estate agents fax machine. You gladly accept the offer and start packing all of your worldly belongings and start preparing and getting ready for your cross country relocation move to a better life and a new career, and a larger home!!

Everything seems to be going smoothly one week into the process and the lender and the buyer's agent have been conducting the usual inspections (home inspection, termite inspection etc.) and everything seems to be on track, nothing out of the ordinary.

Your realtor has been assured with a generic realtor association form from the buyer's agent that was incorporated with the contract that the buyers will qualify.

On moving day, the trucks arrive, the moving crew is there, however loan documents have still not been delivered to the title/escrow company.

What's wrong with this picture and what could have prevented this all to common scenario from occurring?

1. The generic form that was submitted by the buyer's agent was probably created and submitted by the mortgage company doing the loan, not the underwriter. That is simply like the fox guarding the hen house. Most mortgage officers can not approve a loan, only a banker's underwriter can!

2. Many buyers agents simply don't know how to properly qualify their clients since there are so many new agents in the business struggling to get into and stay in the business.

3. Even if a buyers agent does a good job at the preliminary qualifying, they are not in the loop to all of the actual qualifying information. Since credit score, debt to income ratio, and other information is usually asked for by a lender many real estate agents allow the mortgage professional to do this and unfortunately many agents are willing to go for a "hail mary" to see if the loan will close (%50 - %50 is good enough for some).

In such a fast moving world where does a seller have a chance to over come these all too common situations?

1. Insist that the buyer sit for a formal loan application and submit proof of that application going through the process of approval with a reputable lending institution (if they haven't already done it). Request that this loan application or Good Faith Estimate is submitted as a minimum for Seller approval as a bare minimum. "Why fly blind", either the buyer or the seller?

Q: What if the buyer is afraid of revealing confidential information such as social security #, birth date, or even address?

A: The buyer's agent can at a minimum obscure this confidential information on a copied version of this document with white out or correction tape and then fax it or other wise deliver it to the listing agent with the buyers signed permission to disclose this information. What more is there to hide, why hide anything?

Protect your families interests and consider consulting with your professional representation on how you can prevent this most common problem in the real estate industry. Of course consult with your own legal counsel, real estate agent, accountant, and other professionals and advisors relating to this articles content. The author of the content of this article accepts no responsibility for the implementation of this articles content and it is purely for informational purposes and for informing the public about potential issues relating to consumers and the real estate negotiation process. Please consult your professional counsel about implementing any of this information for your individual situation first. All situations are unique and very different consult your attorney or real estate professional representation before considering to use any of the above information.

Visit www.personalizedhomesearch.com for more great articles relating to the real estate industry and relocating to sunny Arizona! -Rick & Jennifer LeForce