Todd Miller: Hello and welcome to Todd Miller Tv. I’m joined here with Sherwin Escanuela, Sherwin thanks for being here.
Sherwin Escanuela: Thanks, I apreciate being here.
Todd Miller: So Sherwin, you work with a ton of buyers and we were talking earlier about pitfalls for buyers to beware of. So let’s kind of go through- what are some of the things that if a person out there is a buyer they need to like, really watch out for?

Sherwin Escanuela: Step one is getting prequalified. That’s pretty much first and foremost, you don’t want to find that perfect home and have to go throught the, you know, prequalification process, and I can’t even write an offer without it. It’s absolutely worthless. I submit it to a listing agent and they’ll be like, thanks but no thanks.
Todd Miller: Ok. So what if their friend or relative works at Banana Mortgage they’re a lone broker and they’ve got this sheet of paper that just says- ‘hey this is a prequal, they’re prequal.’ And maybe they’re writing an offer on a, like a Bank of America property or something like that.
Sherwin Escanuela: Well, number one thing when you’re looking at properties out there, especially ones that are bank owned, specific banks will ask you to prequalify with their specific lender. Bank of America property will ask you to qualify with a Bank of America lender, that is procedure. You don’t have to use their lender, but you are required to prequalify with them so you’ve got to be ready for that. Wells Fargo is the same way, Chase is doing the same thing now. So I understand most people who do have somebody in the buisness, but it is really not up to me at the end of the day. Most of these bank owned properties, even regular short sale sellers are not asking for them to prequalify with their specific lender, specifically because of so many fallouts on you know, fallouts in the market because of loans not coming through at the end of the day.
Todd Miller: Do you think its possible that a seller looks at all the offers and if their kind of the same, maybe picks the one they think has a better chance of being financed, because maybe a national lender has a better shot than you know, Joe at the mortgage company?
Sherwin Escanuela: Absolutely. They absolutely do, so name recognition is important in this buisness.
Todd Miller: What are some other pitfalls? We’ve got the prequal.
Sherin Escanuela: Yeah, definitely knowing the market. A lot of people come in the market thinking you know, I can submit a $50,000 offer on a $70,000 dollar house and they have to take it.
Todd Miller: Right.
Sherwin Escanuela: Inventory is not quite at the levels people think there is and a lot of property is under contract.
Todd Miller: About a month and a half of actual buyable inventory out there, right?
Sherwin Escanuela: That’s about right.
Todd Miller: People don’t realize that. They see the houses on the market, they don’t realize that they have all these short sales that maybe aren’t included in that equity sales and REOs there’s a month and a half of inventory.
Sherwin Escanuela: Yeah, that’s about it and again when you go to typical websites- realtor.com or even zillow, they’ll list properties that are no longer on the market, or that are under contract and again, with approximately 9,000 I believe, properties under contract and a total of maybe 15,000 properties on MLS you’re talking, what, 3 out of 5 houses under contract. That’s, literally it’s a lot of market.
Todd Miller: Okay. So knowing the market and having a, basically an agent, someone who can acess the MLS, really figure out whats available.
Sherin Escanuela: Yes.
Todd Miller: Got to watch out for the online. They’re just trying to sell leads to agents and capture buyers and deal with that and not really worry about giving good information.
Sherwin Escanuela: Absolutely. Its not updated so nobody’s paying to get that updated whereas the MLS, we don’t update something that’s under contract we get fined.
Todd Miller: Okay, so whats something else they would need to know or soemthing to avoid to really make sure they got the house they wanted?
Sherwin Escanuela: Well, that’s actually it-knowing what they’re looking for. Not neccesarily down to the square footage or anything like that but more generic. I get a lot of buyers who come in and go ‘show me the areas!’. Well, you know, Vegas is…we’ll be driving around for eight hours and you’ll be lost. I can show you 30 properties in different parts of town between, you know, 50 to 200,000, but knowing more of what you’re looking for . What fits? What’s important to you? 1, 2, 3. Is it the school, the size, in proximity to work, wherever that may be, proximity to freeways. Those are the most important. Knowing that, then we can go down to-okay well you’re qualified for this much, this is that area that you’re probably going to be closer towards, because I can hunt down properties in that manner. It’s easier than saying ‘show me everything in Vegas in a good neighborhood,’ I couldn’t tell you what a good neighborhood is. Everybody has a different definition.
Todd Miller Right, I agree. If they want to get in touch with you for help buying a house, how do they get you?
Sherwin Escanuela: Call me, 702-219-5582. I ask a lot of questions to know exactly what you’re looking for, that’s my job. I’m a buyer’s agent, it’s what I do.
Todd Miller: And congratulations because you also were the top single agent at this company in the first quarter. You helped the most people buy houses of all the agent here at this company.
Sherwin Escanuela: Thank you.
Todd Miller: So congratulations. Alright, that is the update for today, thanks for tuning in and I hope to see you on the next video.