Ride-along with the new agent

First stop today is a townhouse listed on the MLS yesterday. Before we walked in, I had my new agent pull a CMA on her phone so she could give the seller's agent a real number in conversation rather than a vague "we love it." The CMA showed eleven recent comparables within a half-mile, with a clean median that landed just under the list. A good CMA is the first thing a seller's agent will respect you for; do not show up without one.

Buyer one is a first-time couple, dual income, looking at FHA financing with three and a half percent down. Their lender pre-approved them with a DTI that is tight but workable, and the LTV at this price point will push them into PMI for at least the first few years. I want my new agent to be able to explain PMI in one sentence by the second week: it is the bank's insurance against default, not the buyer's, and it goes away when the LTV drops below 80 percent. If she can say that without flinching, she will win client trust.

The townhouse is in a planned community with a strict HOA. The HOA fee is on the high side because it includes exterior maintenance and the pool, and we covered the standard disclosure document on the drive over — HOA rules are a deal-killer if a buyer doesn't read them before they're under contract. I always send the HOA docs the same evening I write the offer, never after.

Stop two is a duplex the seller is trying to sell themselves — FSBO. The price is anchored to a HUD valuation from a refinance two years ago, which is not the current market. We toured politely, took notes, and on the drive out I walked through how to coach a seller off an out-of-date HUD number using fresh CMA data and recent MLS comps without insulting them.

Last stop is a single-family with an assumable ARM at a rate that is currently below market. This is rare; the listing agent had not put it in the MLS remarks. I walked my agent through what assuming an ARM means — rate caps, adjustment intervals, the fact that PMI may or may not transfer — and how to confirm with the lender before we write the offer. The buyer was at the end of his rope on rates, and I watched my agent earn his trust in twelve sentences. That, more than the FHA spreadsheet or the CMA, is the part of the job nobody trains you for.

On the way back to the office we talked through escrow: who holds the funds, what conditions trigger release, the typical thirty-day timeline in this market. My homework for her tonight is to pull two more CMAs and read the HOA docs for the townhouse. Tomorrow we write our first offer.